Shannon

Shannon is a unisex given name: about 15% of people named Shannon are men and 85% are women, so a gendered salutation is a coin flip and the neutral form is the safe choice.

Mostly femaleHigh

Male 15%Female 85%

Verdict: Mostly female
Male / female split: 15% male / 85% female
Confidence: High (64 or more weighted country observations)
Most common in: United States, Ireland
US births since 1880: 51,926 male / 294,878 female
Data: nam_dict (GFDL) + US SSA
Updated: 2026-09-11

How to address Shannon

To address Shannon when you do not know their gender, use the full name with no title: "Dear Shannon," in English, "Guten Tag Shannon," in German. About 15% of people named Shannon are men and 85% are women, so a gendered salutation is close to a coin flip, and the neutral form above is the safer choice.

Ready-made greetings in six languages

English

Dear Shannon,

German

Guten Tag Shannon,

French

Bonjour Shannon,

Spanish

Estimado/a Shannon:

Chinese

Shannon您好：

Japanese

Shannon様

English

Hi Shannon,

German

Hi Shannon,

French

Salut Shannon,

Spanish

Hola Shannon,

Chinese

Shannon你好：

Japanese

Shannonさん

Greeting generator

This is a statistical estimate, not a statement about the gender, identity or correct form of address of any particular person.

Country breakdown

Gender of the name Shannon by country (nam_dict, 55 country columns)
Country	How common	Usually	Male share
United States	very common	woman's name	15%
Ireland	rare	unisex name	50%

United States birth data

51,926 male · 294,878 female · 346,804 births recorded

Male 15%Female 85%

Since 1980: 10% male.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shannon a male or female name?

Shannon is a unisex given name: about 15% of people named Shannon are men and 85% are women, so a gendered salutation is a coin flip and the neutral form is the safe choice.

How do I address Shannon in an email?

Is Shannon a unisex name?

Shannon is not a unisex name: 15% of people named Shannon are men. Shannon leans strongly female overall.

Sources

Gender by country: nam_dict, the c't first-names dictionary by Joerg Michael, roughly 44,000 names across 55 countries, licensed GFDL. US frequencies: United States Social Security Administration baby-name data, public domain. Method: how we classify names. Full dataset: data & licences. Data built 2026-09-11.

Cite this page

DearWho, "Is Shannon a male or female name?", https://dearwho.vercel.app/name/shannon (accessed 2026-09-11). Data: nam_dict (J. Michael, GFDL) and US SSA, built 2026-09-11.

BibTeX

@misc{dearwho_shannon,
  title  = {Is Shannon a male or female name?},
  author = {{DearWho}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://dearwho.vercel.app/name/shannon},
  note   = {Data: nam_dict (GFDL), US SSA public domain}
}