Shamus
Shamus was given to 9 boys in 2025, #8,799 among boys’ names; 1,778 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,700 Americans named Shamus and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 29 years old and half are between 19 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shamus by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shamus?
#8,799 among boys’ names, 2025
Shamus fell from #5,028 in 2015 to #8,799 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 9.9 to 5.3 per million.
72 babies in 2007, the peak
Shamus peaked in 2007, when 72 boys were given it, #1,970 among boys’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 13% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #8,799 | 5.3 |
| 2023 | 9 | #8,805 | 5.3 |
| 2022 | 7 | #10,669 | 4.0 |
| 2021 | 11 | #7,494 | 6.3 |
| 2020 | 6 | #11,805 | 3.5 |
| 2019 | 9 | #8,752 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 9 | #8,702 | 5.0 |
| 2017 | 16 | #5,738 | 8.6 |
| 2016 | 24 | #4,299 | 12.6 |
| 2015 | 19 | #5,028 | 9.9 |
Every recorded year (61)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 18 | #5,226 | 9.4 |
| 2013 | 26 | #3,942 | 13.7 |
| 2012 | 26 | #3,986 | 13.7 |
| 2011 | 35 | #3,228 | 18.4 |
| 2010 | 38 | #3,063 | 19.8 |
| 2009 | 53 | #2,441 | 26.7 |
| 2008 | 59 | #2,255 | 28.9 |
| 2007 | 72 | #1,970 | 34.7 |
| 2006 | 70 | #1,937 | 34.1 |
| 2005 | 51 | #2,318 | 25.5 |
| 2004 | 43 | #2,561 | 21.7 |
| 2003 | 35 | #2,833 | 17.7 |
| 2002 | 40 | #2,495 | 20.6 |
| 2001 | 35 | #2,723 | 18.0 |
| 2000 | 44 | #2,244 | 22.4 |
| 1999 | 39 | #2,334 | 20.3 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,117 | 23.0 |
| 1997 | 41 | #2,154 | 21.7 |
| 1996 | 37 | #2,242 | 19.5 |
| 1995 | 42 | #2,015 | 22.1 |
| 1994 | 33 | #2,380 | 17.1 |
| 1993 | 41 | #1,993 | 20.9 |
| 1992 | 28 | #2,583 | 14.0 |
| 1991 | 25 | #2,734 | 12.4 |
| 1990 | 20 | #3,142 | 9.7 |
| 1989 | 25 | #2,598 | 12.5 |
| 1988 | 30 | #2,124 | 15.7 |
| 1987 | 20 | #2,705 | 10.7 |
| 1986 | 22 | #2,493 | 11.9 |
| 1985 | 19 | #2,693 | 10.3 |
| 1984 | 23 | #2,278 | 12.7 |
| 1983 | 27 | #2,008 | 15.1 |
| 1982 | 31 | #1,848 | 17.1 |
| 1981 | 38 | #1,596 | 21.2 |
| 1980 | 45 | #1,428 | 25.2 |
| 1979 | 42 | #1,460 | 24.4 |
| 1978 | 37 | #1,562 | 22.5 |
| 1977 | 50 | #1,267 | 30.4 |
| 1976 | 34 | #1,601 | 21.7 |
| 1975 | 53 | #1,165 | 33.9 |
| 1974 | 46 | #1,243 | 29.3 |
| 1973 | 35 | #1,457 | 22.5 |
| 1972 | 20 | #2,067 | 12.3 |
| 1971 | 11 | #3,113 | 6.2 |
| 1970 | 11 | #3,038 | 5.9 |
| 1969 | 12 | #2,661 | 6.7 |
| 1968 | 6 | #4,070 | 3.5 |
| 1967 | 7 | #3,498 | 4.0 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,201 | 4.5 |
| 1965 | 5 | #4,351 | 2.7 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,561 | 3.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shamus a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shamus has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 61 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shamus: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shamus, and how old are they?
1,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 1,778 Americans ever recorded as Shamus. The median Shamus alive today is 29 years old; half are between 19 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 1,588 people named Shamus (13 women and girls, 1,575 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,680 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 5 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 380 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 438 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 713 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 162 |
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 Shamus born?
The states with the most babies named Shamus are Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, with 76% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Massachusetts is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | 106 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| New York | 80 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 62 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| California | 46 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Texas | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Ohio | 6 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Florida | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Iowa | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Washington | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Shamus is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shamus is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1959 it was given 2.6 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 Shamus 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 1,858 babies since 1880, Shamus is the most given (96% 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 Shamus
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 Shamus and names like it
- Compare Shamus and ShaymusBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sShamus peaked in 2007.
- Massachusetts’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shamus since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Shamus.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Shamus alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.