Shanika
Shanika was last recorded in 2024, when 9 babies were given it; 5,610 Americans have been recorded with it between 1970 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,420 Americans named Shanika and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 41 years old and half are between 36 and 46.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shanika by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shanika mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shanika is “a female given name of Sinhala usage.”
Also “a female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage.”
From Sinhalese ශානිකා (śānikā).
/ʃəˈniːkə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shanika?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,968, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
410 babies in 1979, the peak
Shanika peaked in 1979, when 410 girls were given it, #495 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 9 | #10,968 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 5 | #18,452 | under 0.01 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,853 | under 0.01 |
| 2011 | 5 | #19,121 | under 0.01 |
| 2010 | 10 | #11,122 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 8 | #13,493 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 15 | #8,460 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 16 | #8,028 | 0.01 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,421 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 15 | #7,837 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 15 | #7,771 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 15 | #7,518 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,948 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 21 | #5,534 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 28 | #4,378 | 0.02 |
| 1999 | 40 | #3,236 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 56 | #2,490 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 65 | #2,151 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,857 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 105 | #1,502 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 119 | #1,385 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 178 | #1,038 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 250 | #804 | 0.14 |
| 1991 | 289 | #722 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 288 | #726 | 0.15 |
| 1989 | 284 | #701 | 0.15 |
| 1988 | 271 | #704 | 0.15 |
| 1987 | 296 | #639 | 0.17 |
| 1986 | 233 | #748 | 0.14 |
| 1985 | 269 | #672 | 0.16 |
| 1984 | 277 | #638 | 0.16 |
| 1983 | 275 | #629 | 0.16 |
| 1982 | 288 | #626 | 0.17 |
| 1981 | 257 | #676 | 0.15 |
| 1980 | 262 | #672 | 0.16 |
| 1979 | 410 | #495 | 0.26 |
| 1978 | 257 | #639 | 0.17 |
| 1977 | 188 | #800 | 0.12 |
| 1976 | 129 | #991 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 106 | #1,109 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 66 | #1,498 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 27 | #2,672 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 28 | #2,578 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 15 | #4,086 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,254 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shanika a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shanika has been given almost only to girls: 11 boys in 45 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shanika: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shanika, and how old are they?
5,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 5,610 Americans ever recorded as Shanika. The median Shanika alive today is 41 years old; half are between 36 and 46.
The 2020 Census counted 4,484 people named Shanika (4,478 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,462 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,420 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,660 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 322 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 19 |
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 Shanika born?
The states with the most babies named Shanika are Florida, New York and Illinois, with 27% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 482 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| New York | 363 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 361 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 343 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| California | 329 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 272 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Maryland | 264 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Virginia | 232 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| South Carolina | 207 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Michigan | 192 | not ranked | 0.9× |
Where Shanika is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shanika is most over-represented in Maryland: since 1970 it was given 2.7 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 Shanika 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 19,781 babies since 1880, Shanika is the second most given (28% 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 Shanika
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 Shanika and names like it
- Compare Shanika and ShaniceBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sShanika peaked in 1979.
- Florida’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shanika since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Shanika.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shanika alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.