Shady
Shady was last recorded in 2023, when 5 babies were given it; 530 Americans have been recorded with it between 1915 and 2023 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shady by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shady?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,854, in 2023; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
27 babies in 1994, the peak
Shady peaked in 1994, when 27 babies were given it (18 boys, #3,719 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | under 5 | 5 | #13,854 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 7 | #10,624 | |
| 2016 | under 5 | 5 | #13,868 | |
| 2012 | 5 | #19,107 | under 5 | |
| 2009 | 5 | #19,723 | 8 | #9,712 |
| 2008 | 5 | #19,985 | 6 | #12,303 |
| 2007 | under 5 | 6 | #12,112 | |
| 2006 | under 5 | 7 | #10,473 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 12 | #6,553 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 11 | #6,896 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 6 | #15,422 | 7 | #9,431 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,636 | 9 | #7,527 |
| 2001 | 11 | #9,248 | 11 | #6,361 |
| 2000 | 7 | #12,895 | 9 | #7,294 |
| 1999 | 12 | #8,130 | 11 | #5,972 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,948 | 10 | #6,216 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,654 | 12 | #5,220 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,697 | 8 | #7,003 |
| 1995 | 12 | #7,429 | 9 | #6,321 |
| 1994 | 9 | #9,458 | 18 | #3,719 |
| 1993 | 8 | #10,376 | 9 | #6,137 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,969 | 11 | #5,176 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,797 | 8 | #6,417 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,794 | 9 | #5,728 |
| 1989 | 5 | #14,078 | 15 | #3,774 |
| 1988 | under 5 | 10 | #4,723 | |
| 1987 | under 5 | 9 | #4,890 | |
| 1986 | under 5 | 6 | #6,589 | |
| 1985 | under 5 | 11 | #4,003 | |
| 1984 | 9 | #7,293 | 9 | #4,490 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,993 | 7 | #5,386 |
| 1982 | 8 | #8,061 | 5 | #7,192 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,785 | 6 | #6,125 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,235 | under 5 | |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,592 | 11 | #3,771 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,481 | 6 | #5,654 |
| 1976 | under 5 | 6 | #5,489 | |
| 1941 | 6 | #4,356 | under 5 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,876 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 8 | #3,141 | |
| 1915 | under 5 | 6 | #3,768 |
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 Shady a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 530 Americans recorded as Shady, 38% are girls and 62% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shady: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shady, and how old are they?
An estimated 492 Americans named Shady and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 25 and 39. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,054 people named Shady (286 women and girls, 768 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 492 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.1 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 5 names spelled alike, given to 3,919 babies since 1880, Shady is the third most given (14% of them). In 2025 none of their 25 babies recorded by SSA was a Shady (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 Shady
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 Shady and names like it
- Compare Shady and ShadeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShady peaked in 1994.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shady since 1910.
- The top names of 1994The year the most babies were named Shady.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shady alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.