Shannon

Where the name comes from

• Irish (river name)
  Probably "old," as in "old river." This meaning isn't certain.
  Irish an tSionainn, Old Irish Sinann. It is thought to be related to Irish sean, "old."
  The name comes from the River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland. Experts say the river's name probably means something like "old man river." They tie it to an old Celtic word for "old." A Greek geographer may have recorded the river as the Senus about 1,900 years ago. Some older writers doubted the "old" meaning, because every river is old. The meanings "little wise one" and "wise river" are popular meanings. No scholarly source supports them.
• Irish (surname)
  "Descendant of Seanán." Seanán is a personal name built on sean, meaning "old" or "wise."
  Ó Seanáin
  Shannon is also an Irish family name. It is a shortened English form of Ó Seanáin. In County Clare it also stands for Mac Giolla tSeanáin, "son of the servant of St. Seanán." It can also be a short form of Shanahan (Ó Seanacháin). The surname took root in Scotland about 700 years ago.
• American English (given name)
  Taken from the Irish river or the Irish surname
  Shannon
  American parents turned the place name and surname into a first name. It peaked in the 1970s, mostly for girls but also for boys. Our sources don't record any traditional Spanish or Latin American form. Spanish speakers in the US and Latin America use the English spelling, Shannon.

Shannon across traditions

• Irish mythology. Sinann was the goddess of the River Shannon and a granddaughter of the sea god Lir. In the best-known story, she goes to Connla's Well looking for hidden knowledge. The angry well rises up and drowns her. The river is then named for her. Scholars think the story probably came after the river's name, not before it.
• Irish Christian. In County Clare, some Shannon families take their name from a devotion to St. Seanán. Mac Giolla tSeanáin means "son of the servant of St. Seanán."
• Irish American. For many American families, the name honors Irish roots through Ireland's best-known river.

Who carried it

• Claude Shannon (1916–2001): American mathematician and engineer. He founded information theory, the math behind digital communication.
• Shannon Lucid (born 1943): NASA astronaut. She was known for her long stay aboard the Mir space station in 1996.
• Shannon Miller (born 1977): American gymnast. She won Olympic medals in 1992 and 1996.
• Del Shannon (1934–1990): American rock and roll singer-songwriter. He is best known for his No. 1 hit "Runaway" in 1961.

Forms in other languages

Shannen, Shanon, Shannan, Sionainn, Sinann

Shannon in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.