Shamal
Shamal was last recorded in 2008, when 7 babies were given it; 172 Americans have been recorded with it between 1978 and 2008 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shamal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shamal?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #10,839, in 2008; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1996, the peak
Shamal peaked in 1996, when 13 boys were given it, #4,832 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 7 | #10,839 | 3.4 |
| 2005 | 6 | #11,235 | 3.0 |
| 2004 | 8 | #8,784 | 4.0 |
| 2003 | 10 | #7,151 | 5.1 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,530 | 4.6 |
| 2001 | 6 | #10,342 | 3.1 |
| 2000 | 9 | #7,297 | 4.6 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,558 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 8 | #7,427 | 4.2 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,974 | 3.7 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 13 | #4,832 | 6.9 |
| 1995 | 8 | #6,871 | 4.2 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,261 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 7 | #7,481 | 3.6 |
| 1992 | 9 | #6,053 | 4.5 |
| 1991 | 10 | #5,439 | 4.9 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,624 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 5 | #9,005 | 2.5 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,200 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 6 | #6,123 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,917 | 2.9 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,611 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shamal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shamal has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 22 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shamal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shamal, and how old are they?
An estimated 166 Americans named Shamal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 25 and 35. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 274 people named Shamal (34 women and girls, 240 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 168 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 1,593 babies since 1880, Shamal is the third most given (11% of them).
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 Shamal
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 Shamal and names like it
- Compare Shamal and ShamelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShamal peaked in 1996.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shamal since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Shamal.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shamal alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.