Shain
Shain was given to 6 boys in 2025, #11,776 among boys’ names; 1,241 Americans have been recorded with it since 1963 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,170 Americans named Shain and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 25 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shain by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shain?
#11,776 among boys’ names, 2025
Shain fell from #9,428 in 2015 to #11,776 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 4.2 to 3.5 per million.
41 babies in 1978, the peak
Shain peaked in 1978, when 41 babies were given it (36 boys, #1,594 among boys’ names). The 6 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 | #11,776 | 3.5 |
| 2022 | 10 | #8,201 | 5.7 |
| 2020 | 6 | #11,803 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 8 | #9,602 | 4.5 |
| 2018 | 6 | #11,905 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 9 | #8,725 | 4.9 |
| 2015 | 8 | #9,428 | 4.2 |
| 2014 | 8 | #9,477 | 4.2 |
| 2013 | 21 | #4,591 | 11.1 |
| 2012 | 13 | #6,577 | 6.9 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 10 | #7,961 | 5.3 |
| 2010 | 19 | #5,003 | 9.9 |
| 2009 | 17 | #5,510 | 8.6 |
| 2008 | 22 | #4,512 | 10.8 |
| 2007 | 16 | #5,633 | 7.7 |
| 2006 | 21 | #4,480 | 10.2 |
| 2005 | 16 | #5,235 | 8.0 |
| 2004 | 19 | #4,562 | 9.6 |
| 2003 | 24 | #3,702 | 12.1 |
| 2002 | 20 | #4,157 | 10.3 |
| 2001 | 23 | #3,700 | 11.8 |
| 2000 | 22 | #3,731 | 11.2 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,808 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 24 | #3,277 | 12.6 |
| 1997 | 26 | #2,962 | 13.8 |
| 1996 | 27 | #2,815 | 14.3 |
| 1995 | 16 | #4,011 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 18 | #3,720 | 9.3 |
| 1993 | 33 | #2,334 | 16.8 |
| 1992 | 26 | #2,728 | 13.0 |
| 1991 | 30 | #2,385 | 14.8 |
| 1990 | 33 | #2,203 | 16.1 |
| 1989 | 28 | #2,396 | 14.0 |
| 1988 | 34 | #1,940 | 17.8 |
| 1987 | 30 | #2,046 | 16.1 |
| 1986 | 35 | #1,786 | 19.0 |
| 1985 | 40 | #1,608 | 21.6 |
| 1984 | 21 | #2,425 | 11.6 |
| 1983 | 26 | #2,069 | 14.5 |
| 1982 | 27 | #2,051 | 14.9 |
| 1981 | 23 | #2,259 | 12.8 |
| 1980 | 36 | #1,648 | 20.2 |
| 1979 | 34 | #1,706 | 19.7 |
| 1978 | 36 | #1,594 | 21.9 |
| 1977 | 38 | #1,510 | 23.1 |
| 1976 | 27 | #1,865 | 17.2 |
| 1975 | 30 | #1,694 | 19.2 |
| 1974 | 23 | #1,970 | 14.6 |
| 1973 | 29 | #1,647 | 18.6 |
| 1972 | 25 | #1,813 | 15.4 |
| 1971 | 26 | #1,772 | 14.7 |
| 1970 | 18 | #2,199 | 9.7 |
| 1969 | 13 | #2,527 | 7.3 |
| 1968 | 9 | #3,070 | 5.2 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,451 | 2.9 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,200 | 4.5 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,747 | 5.4 |
| 1963 | 7 | #3,602 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shain a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,241 Americans recorded as Shain, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 6 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shain: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shain, and how old are they?
1,170 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 1,241 Americans ever recorded as Shain. The median Shain alive today is 37 years old; half are between 25 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 1,177 people named Shain (123 women and girls, 1,054 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,170 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 6 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 344 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 429 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 311 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 81 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 84,083 babies since 1880, Shain is the fifth most given (1.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 231 babies (2.6%), again the fifth 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 Shain
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 Shain and names like it
- Compare Shain and ShaunBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sShain peaked in 1978.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shain since 1910.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Shain.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shain alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.