Sean

//ʃɔːn// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Dated form of seine. alt-of, dated
Verb
  1. 1
    Dated form of seine. alt-of, dated

    "Seaning is conducted on a large scale at St. Ives for the capture of pilchards[…]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A male given name from Irish.

    "They sit by the fire smoking and talking about names. Mam says she likes the names Kevin and Sean but Bridey says, Ah no, there's too many of them in Limerick. Jesus, Angela, if you stuck your head out of the door and called, Kevin or Sean, come in for your tea, you'd have half o' Limerick running to your door."

Example

More examples

"The resemblance between Sean and Conner is striking!"

Etymology

Anglicised form of Irish Seán, from Old French Jehan, from Latin Johannes, variant of Ioannes, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννης (Iōánnēs), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָן (Yōḥānān, literally “God is gracious”). Doublet of John, Jack, Johan, Johann, Johannes, Jean, Ian, Evan, Ivan, Shaun, Shane, and Giovanni.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.