Shani
Shani was given to 7 girls in 2025, #12,976 among girls’ names; 4,542 Americans have been recorded with it since 1962 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,360 Americans named Shani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 30 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shani?
#12,976 among girls’ names, 2025
Shani fell from #4,965 in 2015 to #12,976 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 15.7 to 4.4 per million.
223 babies in 1969, the peak
Shani peaked in 1969, when 223 girls were given it, #665 among girls’ names. The 7 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #12,976 | under 0.01 |
| 2024 | 18 | #6,605 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 21 | #5,921 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 17 | #6,943 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 9 | #11,023 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,879 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 19 | #6,376 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,317 | under 0.01 |
| 2017 | 12 | #9,263 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 16 | #7,550 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (64)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 28 | #4,965 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 18 | #6,943 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 21 | #6,217 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 30 | #4,816 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 22 | #6,112 | 0.01 |
| 2010 | 42 | #3,739 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 41 | #3,858 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 53 | #3,211 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 50 | #3,370 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 56 | #3,048 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 68 | #2,546 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 55 | #2,918 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 72 | #2,339 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 69 | #2,345 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 69 | #2,321 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 59 | #2,563 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 58 | #2,494 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 54 | #2,561 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 51 | #2,546 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,856 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 79 | #1,810 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 74 | #1,921 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 96 | #1,598 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 142 | #1,227 | 0.08 |
| 1991 | 132 | #1,272 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 101 | #1,526 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 98 | #1,486 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 74 | #1,731 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 90 | #1,456 | 0.05 |
| 1986 | 96 | #1,358 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 104 | #1,296 | 0.06 |
| 1984 | 73 | #1,563 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 94 | #1,299 | 0.06 |
| 1982 | 90 | #1,372 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 98 | #1,302 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 103 | #1,265 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 143 | #1,003 | 0.09 |
| 1978 | 126 | #1,062 | 0.08 |
| 1977 | 142 | #976 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 130 | #985 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 148 | #895 | 0.10 |
| 1974 | 162 | #827 | 0.11 |
| 1973 | 114 | #1,031 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 113 | #1,037 | 0.07 |
| 1971 | 175 | #804 | 0.11 |
| 1970 | 176 | #797 | 0.10 |
| 1969 | 223 | #665 | 0.13 |
| 1968 | 32 | #2,158 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 32 | #2,111 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 35 | #1,977 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 49 | #1,616 | 0.03 |
| 1964 | 31 | #2,184 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,446 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,446 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shani has been given almost only to girls: 17 boys in 64 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shani, and how old are they?
4,360 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 4,542 Americans ever recorded as Shani. The median Shani alive today is 41 years old; half are between 30 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 4,439 people named Shani (4,334 women and girls, 105 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,321 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 37 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,780 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,480 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 844 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 210 |
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 Shani born?
The states with the most babies named Shani are California, New York and Florida, with 62% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 648 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| New York | 598 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Florida | 176 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Texas | 155 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 99 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 91 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| New Jersey | 91 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Michigan | 73 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Georgia | 67 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 63 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Shani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shani is most over-represented in New York: since 1962 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 Shani 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 141,420 babies since 1880, Shani is the eighth most given (3.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 7 of their 295 babies (2.4%), 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 Shani
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 Shani and names like it
- Compare Shani and ShanaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sShani peaked in 1969.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shani since 1910.
- The top names of 1969The year the most babies were named Shani.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Shani alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with SMost given first.