Shanta
Shanta was last recorded in 2014, when 5 babies were given it; 5,254 Americans have been recorded with it between 1958 and 2014 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,010 Americans named Shanta and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 39 and 50.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shanta by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shanta?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #18,814, in 2014; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
378 babies in 1978, the peak
Shanta peaked in 1978, when 378 babies were given it (360 girls, #518 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 5 | #18,814 | under 0.01 |
| 2011 | 7 | #14,603 | under 0.01 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,722 | under 0.01 |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,989 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 11 | #10,679 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 9 | #12,503 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,787 | under 0.01 |
| 2005 | 12 | #9,359 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 17 | #7,030 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 15 | #7,519 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 16 | #6,990 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 16 | #6,912 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 20 | #5,661 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 30 | #3,947 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 35 | #3,480 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 31 | #3,693 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 38 | #3,131 | 0.02 |
| 1995 | 53 | #2,446 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 60 | #2,223 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 85 | #1,747 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 89 | #1,696 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 93 | #1,619 | 0.05 |
| 1990 | 132 | #1,248 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 153 | #1,096 | 0.08 |
| 1988 | 147 | #1,075 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 193 | #881 | 0.11 |
| 1986 | 205 | #822 | 0.12 |
| 1985 | 237 | #730 | 0.14 |
| 1984 | 194 | #816 | 0.12 |
| 1983 | 175 | #871 | 0.10 |
| 1982 | 203 | #798 | 0.12 |
| 1981 | 255 | #684 | 0.15 |
| 1980 | 264 | #670 | 0.16 |
| 1979 | 312 | #585 | 0.19 |
| 1978 | 360 | #518 | 0.24 |
| 1977 | 301 | #577 | 0.20 |
| 1976 | 163 | #842 | 0.11 |
| 1975 | 167 | #820 | 0.11 |
| 1974 | 177 | #780 | 0.12 |
| 1973 | 135 | #915 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 134 | #921 | 0.09 |
| 1971 | 136 | #946 | 0.08 |
| 1970 | 100 | #1,164 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 72 | #1,350 | 0.04 |
| 1968 | 47 | #1,725 | 0.03 |
| 1967 | 44 | #1,746 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 36 | #1,946 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 32 | #2,108 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,847 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 16 | #3,305 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 16 | #3,272 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,761 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 13 | #3,655 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,857 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shanta a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 5,254 Americans recorded as Shanta, 97% are girls and 3% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shanta: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shanta, and how old are they?
5,010 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 5,254 Americans ever recorded as Shanta. The median Shanta alive today is 45 years old; half are between 39 and 50.
The 2020 Census counted 4,799 people named Shanta (4,663 women and girls, 136 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,076 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 65 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,430 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,280 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 236 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5 |
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 Shanta born?
The states with the most babies named Shanta are Texas, Illinois and New York, with 28% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 363 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 360 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| New York | 330 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 318 | not ranked | 2.3× |
| North Carolina | 226 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Mississippi | 222 | not ranked | 3.5× |
| California | 213 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Florida | 193 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| South Carolina | 181 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| Louisiana | 173 | not ranked | 1.6× |
Where Shanta is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shanta is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1958 it was given 3.5 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 Shanta 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 22,635 babies since 1880, Shanta is the second most given (23% 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 Shanta
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 Shanta and names like it
- Compare Shanta and ShanteBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sShanta peaked in 1978.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shanta since 1910.
- The top names of 1978The year the most babies were named Shanta.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Shanta alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with SMost given first.