Shania
Shania was given to 70 girls in 2025, #2,535 among girls’ names; 15,814 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 15,600 Americans named Shania and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 20 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shania by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shania mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shania is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shania?
#2,535 among girls’ names, 2025
Shania fell from #1,666 in 2015 to #2,535 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 72.3 to 43.6 per million.
1,837 babies in 1996, the peak
Shania peaked in 1996, when 1,837 girls were given it, #171 among girls’ names. The 70 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 70 | #2,535 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 67 | #2,631 | 0.04 |
| 2023 | 96 | #2,046 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 90 | #2,139 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 103 | #1,924 | 0.06 |
| 2020 | 85 | #2,151 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 92 | #2,067 | 0.05 |
| 2018 | 143 | #1,531 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 101 | #1,975 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 128 | #1,682 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 129 | #1,666 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 154 | #1,462 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 199 | #1,207 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 211 | #1,165 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 290 | #901 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 268 | #958 | 0.15 |
| 2009 | 335 | #838 | 0.18 |
| 2008 | 464 | #661 | 0.25 |
| 2007 | 527 | #569 | 0.27 |
| 2006 | 639 | #487 | 0.34 |
| 2005 | 707 | #436 | 0.38 |
| 2004 | 812 | #385 | 0.44 |
| 2003 | 955 | #327 | 0.52 |
| 2002 | 605 | #468 | 0.34 |
| 2001 | 763 | #383 | 0.42 |
| 2000 | 1,098 | #291 | 0.60 |
| 1999 | 1,639 | #190 | 0.92 |
| 1998 | 1,049 | #286 | 0.59 |
| 1997 | 861 | #331 | 0.49 |
| 1996 | 1,837 | #171 | 1.0 |
| 1995 | 576 | #447 | 0.33 |
| 1994 | 68 | #2,051 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 85 | #1,746 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 52 | #2,478 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 53 | #2,408 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 36 | #3,134 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 41 | #2,752 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 33 | #3,080 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 36 | #2,766 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 31 | #3,041 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 42 | #2,393 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 34 | #2,717 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 27 | #3,128 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 26 | #3,325 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 24 | #3,513 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,824 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 23 | #3,515 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 17 | #4,220 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 10 | #6,248 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,556 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,545 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,753 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,213 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,444 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #7,216 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 5 | #9,061 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shania a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shania has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shania: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shania, and how old are they?
15,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 15,814 Americans ever recorded as Shania. The median Shania alive today is 25 years old; half are between 20 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 12,970 people named Shania (12,940 women and girls, 30 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 15,167 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% 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 | 126 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,940 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 11,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,450 |
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 Shania born?
The states with the most babies named Shania are Texas, Florida and North Carolina, with 81% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 9 | #2,368 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,857 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,419 | 1.3× |
| California | 5 | #3,469 | 0.4× |
Where Shania is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shania is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1970 it was given 2.4 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 Shania 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, Shania is the fifth most given (11% of them). In 2025 it was given to 70 of their 295 babies (24%), the third most given that year.
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 Shania
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 Shania and names like it
- Compare Shania and ShanaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShania peaked in 1996.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shania since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Shania.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Shania alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.