Cheyenne

Derived from the Dakota Sioux exonym Šahíyena, referring to the Algonquian-speaking Cheyenne people. The word entered standard American naming largely through Western frontier geography and midcentury television. By the early 1990s, country radio and a broad trend toward place names turned it into a fixture for girls across suburban America.

The name places its bearer squarely in the middle of the Clinton administration, with a massive cluster born right around 1996. It brings to mind line-dancing crazes, turquoise jewelry, and cassette tapes of female country stars. Over half of all living bearers belong to Gen Z, though the name retains a distinctly late-twentieth-century horizon. It sounds expansive, even when shouted in a dentist waiting room.