Shale — boys' name

What the Data Says About Shale

The Social Security Administration has registered 56 babies named Shale between 1972 and 2003, spanning 32 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Shale currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2003. The name reached its historical peak in 1999, when 9 babies received it in a single year. Shale is classified as unisex in SSA records: the opposite-sex variant accounts for 21 additional births since 1994.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Shale performed strongest in the 1990s, accumulating 38 births during that ten-year window. Across the 3 decades of recorded activity, Shale shows a clear decline from its mid-century high.

No etymological entry is currently available for Shale in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 56 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.