Given name & surname · also Celtic
Sheehan
“little peaceful one; peacemaker”·“a small and peaceful man”
Sheehan is used as a given name and a surname. Interpretations include “little peaceful one; peacemaker” (Celtic) and “a small and peaceful man”. These may reflect different naming traditions.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Interpretations include “little peaceful one; peacemaker” (Celtic) and “a small and peaceful man”. These may reflect different naming traditions.
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Celtic.
How it developed
From Irish Ó Síodhacháin (“descendant of Síodhachán”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1983. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Sheehan through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 74
- 69 boys · 5 girls
- Most popular year
- 2001
- 12 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2008. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 12 in 2001. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 195 as a first name in 2020; 25,895 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Sheehan’s family of names
Sheehan has a related form in Shihan. Sheehan has a related form in Shehan. Sheehan has a related form in Sheahan.
The ring: nicknames and forms.
Nicknames & forms 9
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
- Shawhanvariant · English
- Stodhachanvariant
- Shyhanvariant
- Shiehanvariant
- Sheihanvariant
- Sheahanvariant
- Sheyhanvariant
- Shihanvariant
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