Shanay
Shanay was last recorded in 2025, when 5 babies were given it; 1,465 Americans have been recorded with it between 1970 and 2025 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,420 Americans named Shanay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 36 years old and half are between 34 and 41.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shanay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shanay?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #19,119, in 2012; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
153 babies in 1992, the peak
Shanay peaked in 1992, when 153 girls were given it, #1,152 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 5 | #19,119 | 2.8 |
| 2011 | 5 | #19,117 | 2.8 |
| 2009 | 6 | #16,949 | 3.3 |
| 2008 | 5 | #19,998 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 13 | #9,457 | 6.8 |
| 2006 | 10 | #11,283 | 5.3 |
| 2005 | 9 | #11,675 | 4.9 |
| 2004 | 7 | #13,952 | 3.8 |
| 2003 | 11 | #9,580 | 6.0 |
| 2002 | 12 | #8,742 | 6.7 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 12 | #8,651 | 6.7 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,511 | 7.7 |
| 1999 | 10 | #9,356 | 5.6 |
| 1998 | 15 | #6,654 | 8.5 |
| 1997 | 17 | #5,821 | 9.8 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,328 | 8.6 |
| 1995 | 19 | #5,179 | 10.8 |
| 1994 | 27 | #3,982 | 15.1 |
| 1993 | 48 | #2,589 | 26.5 |
| 1992 | 153 | #1,152 | 83.0 |
| 1991 | 133 | #1,264 | 70.9 |
| 1990 | 135 | #1,231 | 71.1 |
| 1989 | 115 | #1,344 | 62.4 |
| 1988 | 93 | #1,474 | 52.2 |
| 1987 | 89 | #1,463 | 51.2 |
| 1986 | 56 | #1,973 | 32.6 |
| 1985 | 54 | #2,014 | 31.4 |
| 1984 | 55 | #1,920 | 32.7 |
| 1983 | 38 | #2,469 | 22.7 |
| 1982 | 40 | #2,441 | 23.6 |
| 1981 | 40 | #2,438 | 24.0 |
| 1980 | 22 | #3,699 | 13.3 |
| 1979 | 23 | #3,514 | 14.3 |
| 1978 | 25 | #3,175 | 16.3 |
| 1977 | 13 | #5,148 | 8.5 |
| 1976 | 26 | #2,917 | 17.7 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,543 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,401 | 9.5 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,498 | 6.9 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,924 | 4.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shanay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,465 Americans recorded as Shanay, 97% are girls and 3% boys. In 2025 it went to 5 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 Shanay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shanay, and how old are they?
1,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,465 Americans ever recorded as Shanay. The median Shanay alive today is 36 years old; half are between 34 and 41.
The 2020 Census counted 1,254 people named Shanay (1,187 women and girls, 67 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,403 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 146 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,080 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 149 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 50 |
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 Shanay born?
The states with the most babies named Shanay are New York, California and Maryland, with 54% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Maryland is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 182 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| California | 115 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Maryland | 68 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 66 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| New Jersey | 53 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 44 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Florida | 34 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 34 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Texas | 25 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Illinois | 20 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Shanay is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shanay is most over-represented in New York: since 1970 it was given 1.8 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 girls’ 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 Shanay 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 138,343 babies since 1880, Shanay is the eighth most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 293 babies (1.7%), again the eighth 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 Shanay
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 Shanay and names like it
- Compare Shanay and ShanaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShanay peaked in 1992.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shanay since 1910.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Shanay.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shanay alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.