Shad
Shad was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,795 among boys’ names; 4,831 Americans have been recorded with it since 1940 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,420 Americans named Shad and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 49 years old and half are between 37 and 54.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shad by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shad?
#8,795 among boys’ names, 2025
Shad fell from #4,057 in 2015 to #8,795 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 13.6 to 5.3 per million.
406 babies in 1971, the peak
Shad peaked in 1971, when 406 boys were given it, #403 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,795 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 15 | #6,165 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 8 | #9,690 | under 0.01 |
| 2021 | 8 | #9,547 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 11 | #7,412 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 11 | #7,551 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 16 | #5,733 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 14 | #6,278 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 15 | #6,005 | 0.01 |
| 2015 | 26 | #4,057 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 20 | #4,834 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 17 | #5,351 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 18 | #5,203 | 0.01 |
| 2011 | 31 | #3,498 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 14 | #6,305 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 19 | #5,069 | 0.01 |
| 2008 | 37 | #3,153 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 21 | #4,614 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 30 | #3,511 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 39 | #2,792 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 32 | #3,140 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 32 | #3,030 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 38 | #2,590 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 37 | #2,604 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 53 | #1,958 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,129 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 45 | #2,088 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 48 | #1,925 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 55 | #1,720 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 56 | #1,639 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 67 | #1,446 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 56 | #1,609 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 62 | #1,481 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 50 | #1,665 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 54 | #1,553 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 49 | #1,635 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 60 | #1,333 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 57 | #1,312 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 49 | #1,433 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 65 | #1,165 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 52 | #1,289 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 77 | #1,013 | 0.04 |
| 1982 | 97 | #911 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 102 | #885 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 118 | #812 | 0.07 |
| 1979 | 150 | #700 | 0.09 |
| 1978 | 181 | #622 | 0.11 |
| 1977 | 196 | #605 | 0.12 |
| 1976 | 199 | #576 | 0.13 |
| 1975 | 261 | #496 | 0.17 |
| 1974 | 316 | #445 | 0.20 |
| 1973 | 317 | #440 | 0.20 |
| 1972 | 381 | #402 | 0.23 |
| 1971 | 406 | #403 | 0.23 |
| 1970 | 175 | #615 | 0.09 |
| 1969 | 96 | #792 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 64 | #909 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 62 | #924 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 47 | #1,087 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 41 | #1,203 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 30 | #1,458 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 20 | #1,831 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 10 | #2,823 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 11 | #2,682 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #3,611 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 10 | #2,792 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,876 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,389 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,867 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shad a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shad has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 69 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shad: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shad, and how old are they?
4,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 91% of the 4,831 Americans ever recorded as Shad. The median Shad alive today is 49 years old; half are between 37 and 54.
The 2020 Census counted 4,248 people named Shad (68 women and girls, 4,180 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,479 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 76 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,680 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 956 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 529 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 169 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Shad born?
The states with the most babies named Shad are California, Utah and Ohio, with 37% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Utah is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 405 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Utah | 293 | not ranked | 5.6× |
| Ohio | 230 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 178 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Washington | 135 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Indiana | 118 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 109 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 101 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Iowa | 97 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| New York | 77 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Shad is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shad is most over-represented in Utah: since 1940 it was given 5.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Shad with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 5,790 babies since 1880, Shad is the most given (83% of them).
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 Shad
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 Shad and names like it
- Compare Shad and ShahidBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sShad peaked in 1971.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shad since 1910.
- The top names of 1971The year the most babies were named Shad.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Shad alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with SMost given first.