Shad — boys' name

What the Data Says About Shad

The Social Security Administration has registered 4,822 babies named Shad between 1940 and 2023, spanning 84 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Shad currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2023. The name reached its historical peak in 1971, when 406 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Shad performed strongest in the 1970s, accumulating 2,582 births during that ten-year window. Across the 9 decades of recorded activity, Shad shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in California, which accounts for 405 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Utah and Ohio. In total, SSA state-level files list Shad in 31 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Shad in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 4,822 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.