Sha
Sha was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 766 Americans have been recorded with it between 1962 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sha?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,303, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
40 babies in 1989, the peak
Sha peaked in 1989, when 40 babies were given it (32 girls, #3,301 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #17,303 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 5 | #13,712 | |
| 2017 | 5 | #18,048 | under 5 | |
| 2015 | 5 | #18,693 | under 5 | |
| 2013 | 6 | #16,226 | under 5 | |
| 2012 | 6 | #16,525 | under 5 | |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,813 | under 5 | |
| 2004 | 11 | #9,790 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 7 | #13,580 | 5 | #12,453 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,629 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | under 5 | 5 | #12,010 | |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,689 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | 14 | #7,160 | under 5 | |
| 1998 | 12 | #7,929 | under 5 | |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,645 | under 5 | |
| 1996 | 11 | #8,017 | under 5 | |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,972 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 32 | #3,514 | 6 | #8,619 |
| 1993 | 18 | #5,385 | 7 | #7,477 |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,663 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 31 | #3,521 | 7 | #7,143 |
| 1990 | 26 | #3,977 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 32 | #3,301 | 8 | #6,115 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,190 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,686 | 6 | #6,802 |
| 1986 | 10 | #7,020 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 8 | #8,152 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 22 | #3,693 | 5 | #7,145 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,667 | 7 | #5,385 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,467 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 25 | #3,413 | 6 | #6,122 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,234 | 8 | #4,868 |
| 1979 | 25 | #3,311 | 9 | #4,337 |
| 1978 | 30 | #2,787 | 9 | #4,107 |
| 1977 | 20 | #3,727 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,261 | 5 | #6,338 |
| 1975 | 21 | #3,379 | 8 | #4,244 |
| 1974 | 23 | #3,076 | 9 | #3,776 |
| 1973 | 14 | #4,310 | 7 | #4,425 |
| 1972 | 13 | #4,484 | 5 | #5,617 |
| 1971 | 12 | #4,756 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 12 | #4,710 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,672 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 8 | #5,548 | under 5 | |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,641 | under 5 | |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,429 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,837 | under 5 | |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,389 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Sha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 766 Americans recorded as Sha, 83% are girls and 17% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sha, and how old are they?
An estimated 732 Americans named Sha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 42 years old and half are between 33 and 50. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,930 people named Sha (1,309 women and girls, 621 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 732 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Sha rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 64,925 babies since 1880, Sha is the fifth most given (1.2% of them). In 2025 none of their 860 babies recorded by SSA was a Sha (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Sha
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Sha and names like it
- Compare Sha and SashaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sSha peaked in 1989.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sha since 1910.
- The top names of 1989The year the most babies were named Sha.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Sha alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.