Shai
Shai is given to both girls and boys: 78 girls and 215 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,349 among girls’ names and #1,032 among boys’, #1,725 among all names counting both); 4,340 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Shai every year since 2017.
An estimated 4,280 Americans named Shai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 4 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shai?
#1,032 among boys’ names, 2025
Shai rose from #2,520 in 2015 to #1,032 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.03 to 0.13 per 1,000.
340 babies in 2023, the peak
Shai peaked in 2023, when 340 babies were given it (224 boys, #983 among boys’ names). The 293 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 86% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 78 | #2,349 | 215 | #1,032 |
| 2024 | 101 | #1,964 | 200 | #1,089 |
| 2023 | 116 | #1,772 | 224 | #983 |
| 2022 | 107 | #1,895 | 219 | #1,020 |
| 2021 | 96 | #2,022 | 199 | #1,073 |
| 2020 | 71 | #2,466 | 120 | #1,449 |
| 2019 | 59 | #2,849 | 98 | #1,656 |
| 2018 | 48 | #3,337 | 75 | #1,974 |
| 2017 | 36 | #4,137 | 66 | #2,106 |
| 2016 | 30 | #4,715 | 52 | #2,470 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 31 | #4,572 | 50 | #2,520 |
| 2014 | 26 | #5,291 | 35 | #3,206 |
| 2013 | 20 | #6,430 | 50 | #2,485 |
| 2012 | 33 | #4,472 | 55 | #2,350 |
| 2011 | 34 | #4,341 | 44 | #2,733 |
| 2010 | 25 | #5,567 | 45 | #2,721 |
| 2009 | 34 | #4,464 | 45 | #2,742 |
| 2008 | 40 | #3,996 | 55 | #2,372 |
| 2007 | 41 | #3,904 | 42 | #2,859 |
| 2006 | 41 | #3,780 | 34 | #3,209 |
| 2005 | 26 | #5,086 | 27 | #3,598 |
| 2004 | 25 | #5,184 | 33 | #3,059 |
| 2003 | 25 | #5,065 | 34 | #2,912 |
| 2002 | 34 | #3,868 | 35 | #2,737 |
| 2001 | 38 | #3,533 | 23 | #3,699 |
| 2000 | 45 | #3,107 | 26 | #3,278 |
| 1999 | 36 | #3,492 | 17 | #4,306 |
| 1998 | 51 | #2,684 | 27 | #3,001 |
| 1997 | 59 | #2,300 | 25 | #3,049 |
| 1996 | 57 | #2,334 | 28 | #2,730 |
| 1995 | 53 | #2,445 | 38 | #2,167 |
| 1994 | 63 | #2,157 | 40 | #2,074 |
| 1993 | 90 | #1,674 | 44 | #1,891 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,219 | 12 | #4,808 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,866 | 7 | #7,145 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,760 | 16 | #3,743 |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,615 | 8 | #6,118 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,191 | 8 | #5,656 |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,691 | 10 | #4,519 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,352 | 5 | #7,638 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,085 | 8 | #5,067 |
| 1984 | 13 | #5,473 | 11 | #3,892 |
| 1983 | under 5 | 7 | #5,387 | |
| 1982 | 7 | #9,009 | 7 | #5,526 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,711 | 9 | #4,433 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,237 | 7 | #5,424 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 7 | #5,270 | |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,483 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 12 | #5,461 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,555 | 8 | #4,354 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,998 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,511 | 7 | #4,560 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,531 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,437 | 5 | #5,622 |
| 1971 | 6 | #8,126 | 7 | #4,315 |
| 1970 | 5 | #9,054 | under 5 | |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,289 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | 5 | #7,951 | 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 Shai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,340 Americans recorded as Shai, 43% are girls and 57% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shai, and how old are they?
4,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,340 Americans ever recorded as Shai. The median Shai alive today is 10 years old; half are between 4 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 2,822 people named Shai (1,269 women and girls, 1,553 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,605 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 118 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 618 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,140 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,410 |
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 Shai born?
The states with the most babies named Shai are New York, California and Florida, with 51% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 40 | #557 | 1.5× |
| California | 38 | #826 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 33 | #700 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 23 | #1,288 | 0.3× |
| New Jersey | 14 | #538 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 14 | #975 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 12 | #739 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 12 | #1,124 | 0.3× |
| Maryland | 9 | #561 | 0.6× |
| Connecticut | 7 | #434 | 0.1× |
Where Shai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shai is most over-represented in New York: since 1968 it was given 1.5 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 Shai 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 7,630 babies since 1880, Shai is the most given (57% of them). In 2025 it was given to 293 of their 476 babies (62%), again the most given.
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 Shai
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 Shai and names like it
- Compare Shai and ShayaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sShai peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shai since 1910.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Shai.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Shai alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.