Shanell
Shanell was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,896 among girls’ names; 4,719 Americans have been recorded with it since 1964 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,580 Americans named Shanell and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 28 and 44.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shanell by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shanell?
#16,896 among girls’ names, 2025
Shanell fell from #3,693 in 2015 to #16,896 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 23.5 to 3.1 per million.
208 babies in 1990, the peak
Shanell peaked in 1990, when 208 girls were given it, #917 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,896 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 13 | #8,358 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 17 | #6,884 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 18 | #6,667 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 8 | #12,036 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 16 | #7,174 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 26 | #5,145 | 0.02 |
| 2018 | 22 | #5,758 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 26 | #5,164 | 0.02 |
| 2016 | 35 | #4,229 | 0.02 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 42 | #3,693 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 45 | #3,535 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 38 | #3,990 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 47 | #3,457 | 0.03 |
| 2011 | 43 | #3,652 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 58 | #2,972 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 61 | #2,884 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 53 | #3,210 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 48 | #3,471 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 53 | #3,168 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 68 | #2,545 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 54 | #2,955 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 54 | #2,871 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 59 | #2,632 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 67 | #2,371 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 59 | #2,562 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,463 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 66 | #2,179 | 0.04 |
| 1997 | 84 | #1,797 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 93 | #1,651 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 91 | #1,634 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 125 | #1,342 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 144 | #1,207 | 0.08 |
| 1992 | 159 | #1,120 | 0.09 |
| 1991 | 194 | #970 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 208 | #917 | 0.11 |
| 1989 | 164 | #1,044 | 0.09 |
| 1988 | 148 | #1,071 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 162 | #978 | 0.09 |
| 1986 | 174 | #925 | 0.10 |
| 1985 | 136 | #1,076 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 204 | #787 | 0.12 |
| 1983 | 140 | #1,013 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 139 | #1,043 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 152 | #968 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 131 | #1,081 | 0.08 |
| 1979 | 132 | #1,053 | 0.08 |
| 1978 | 123 | #1,076 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 103 | #1,198 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 90 | #1,250 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 103 | #1,135 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 61 | #1,575 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 65 | #1,475 | 0.04 |
| 1972 | 51 | #1,746 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 52 | #1,750 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 18 | #3,547 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 27 | #2,566 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 17 | #3,280 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 15 | #3,447 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 16 | #3,243 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 13 | #3,700 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,846 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shanell a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shanell has been given almost only to girls: 12 boys in 62 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shanell: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shanell, and how old are they?
4,580 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 4,719 Americans ever recorded as Shanell. The median Shanell alive today is 37 years old; half are between 28 and 44.
The 2020 Census counted 3,723 people named Shanell (3,688 women and girls, 35 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,540 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 11 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 963 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,370 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 923 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 309 |
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 Shanell born?
The states with the most babies named Shanell are New York, California and Florida, with 45% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 565 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| California | 408 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Florida | 210 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 202 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Maryland | 173 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| Texas | 159 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Louisiana | 139 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 139 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 130 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 94 | not ranked | 0.7× |
Where Shanell is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shanell is most over-represented in Maryland: since 1964 it was given 2.1 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 Shanell 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 9,237 babies since 1880, Shanell is the most given (51% 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 Shanell
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 Shanell and names like it
- Compare Shanell and ShanelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShanell peaked in 1990.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shanell since 1910.
- The top names of 1990The year the most babies were named Shanell.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shanell alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.