Shakur
Shakur was given to 29 boys in 2025, #3,831 among boys’ names; 1,622 Americans have been recorded with it since 1987 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,590 Americans named Shakur and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 8 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shakur by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shakur mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shakur is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “thankful, grateful” (شَكُور).
Borrowed from Arabic شَكُور (šakūr, “thankful, grateful”). This surname is predominantly found in India.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shakur?
#3,831 among boys’ names, 2025
Shakur fell from #3,499 in 2015 to #3,831 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 16.7 to 17.0 per million.
128 babies in 1997, the peak
Shakur peaked in 1997, when 128 babies were given it (119 boys, #1,071 among boys’ names). The 29 births of 2025 are 23% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 29 | #3,831 | 17.0 |
| 2024 | 60 | #2,364 | 34.8 |
| 2023 | 65 | #2,216 | 38.0 |
| 2022 | 56 | #2,488 | 32.1 |
| 2021 | 66 | #2,167 | 37.7 |
| 2020 | 55 | #2,411 | 31.9 |
| 2019 | 63 | #2,226 | 35.1 |
| 2018 | 49 | #2,608 | 27.0 |
| 2017 | 37 | #3,183 | 20.0 |
| 2016 | 43 | #2,827 | 22.7 |
Every recorded year (35)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | #3,499 | 16.7 |
| 2014 | 28 | #3,760 | 14.6 |
| 2013 | 27 | #3,842 | 14.3 |
| 2012 | 25 | #4,105 | 13.2 |
| 2011 | 19 | #4,953 | 10.0 |
| 2010 | 20 | #4,815 | 10.4 |
| 2009 | 25 | #4,139 | 12.6 |
| 2008 | 21 | #4,676 | 10.3 |
| 2007 | 34 | #3,294 | 16.4 |
| 2006 | 35 | #3,143 | 17.0 |
| 2005 | 35 | #3,002 | 17.5 |
| 2004 | 44 | #2,525 | 22.2 |
| 2003 | 57 | #2,023 | 28.9 |
| 2002 | 46 | #2,283 | 23.7 |
| 2001 | 45 | #2,265 | 23.2 |
| 2000 | 53 | #1,959 | 27.0 |
| 1999 | 49 | #1,985 | 25.5 |
| 1998 | 81 | #1,414 | 42.4 |
| 1997 | 119 | #1,071 | 63.1 |
| 1996 | 87 | #1,273 | 45.9 |
| 1995 | 46 | #1,881 | 24.2 |
| 1994 | 78 | #1,324 | 40.4 |
| 1993 | 67 | #1,423 | 34.2 |
| 1992 | 11 | #5,179 | 5.5 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,805 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shakur a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shakur has been given almost only to boys: 9 girls in 35 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shakur: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shakur, and how old are they?
1,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,622 Americans ever recorded as Shakur. The median Shakur alive today is 21 years old; half are between 8 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 1,009 people named Shakur (36 women and girls, 973 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,287 born in the U.S. The Census count is 22% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 285 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 703 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 606 |
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 Shakur born?
The states with the most babies named Shakur are Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, with 64% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 175 | not ranked | 2.8× |
| New York | 133 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| New Jersey | 76 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| North Carolina | 37 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| California | 31 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Florida | 31 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 21 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 19 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 17 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Texas | 15 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Shakur is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shakur is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1987 it was given 2.8 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 Shakur 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,849 babies since 1880, Shakur is the most given (57% of them). In 2025 it was given to 29 of their 42 babies (69%), 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 Shakur
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 Shakur and names like it
- Compare Shakur and ShakirBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShakur peaked in 1997.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shakur since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Shakur: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Shakur.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Shakur alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.