Shaquille
Shaquille was given to 43 boys in 2025, #2,926 among boys’ names; 6,156 Americans have been recorded with it since 1989 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,960 Americans named Shaquille and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 31 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shaquille by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shaquille mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shaquille is “a male given name from Arabic of modern American usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “handsome” (شَكِيل).
A fanciful spelling of Arabic شَكِيل (šakīl, “handsome”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shaquille?
#2,926 among boys’ names, 2025
Shaquille fell from #2,381 in 2015 to #2,926 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 28.7 to 25.2 per million.
1,911 babies in 1993, the peak
Shaquille peaked in 1993, when 1,911 babies were given it (1,785 boys, #181 among boys’ names). The 43 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #2,926 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 28 | #3,963 | 0.02 |
| 2023 | 28 | #3,979 | 0.02 |
| 2022 | 32 | #3,599 | 0.02 |
| 2021 | 44 | #2,852 | 0.03 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,494 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 47 | #2,727 | 0.03 |
| 2018 | 55 | #2,411 | 0.03 |
| 2017 | 48 | #2,628 | 0.03 |
| 2016 | 53 | #2,431 | 0.03 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 55 | #2,381 | 0.03 |
| 2014 | 58 | #2,290 | 0.03 |
| 2013 | 53 | #2,393 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 45 | #2,707 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 32 | #3,419 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 20 | #4,816 | 0.01 |
| 2009 | 8 | #9,715 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 11 | #7,614 | 0.01 |
| 2007 | 7 | #10,713 | under 0.01 |
| 2006 | 18 | #5,033 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 17 | #4,994 | 0.01 |
| 2004 | 24 | #3,834 | 0.01 |
| 2003 | 34 | #2,913 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 30 | #3,077 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 43 | #2,335 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 56 | #1,887 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 39 | #2,335 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 66 | #1,596 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 96 | #1,223 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 250 | #662 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 494 | #457 | 0.26 |
| 1994 | 1,270 | #234 | 0.66 |
| 1993 | 1,785 | #181 | 0.91 |
| 1992 | 523 | #426 | 0.26 |
| 1991 | 199 | #715 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 92 | #1,123 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 14 | #3,987 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shaquille a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 6,156 Americans recorded as Shaquille, 6% are girls and 94% boys. In 2025 it went to 43 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shaquille: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shaquille, and how old are they?
5,960 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 6,156 Americans ever recorded as Shaquille. The median Shaquille alive today is 32 years old; half are between 31 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 4,439 people named Shaquille (263 women and girls, 4,176 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,811 born in the U.S. The Census count is 24% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,830 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 535 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 592 |
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 Shaquille born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 6 | #1,802 | 1.2× |
| New York | 5 | #1,999 | 1.8× |
Where Shaquille is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shaquille is most over-represented in South Carolina: since 1989 it was given 3.3 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 boys’ 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 Shaquille 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 6,401 babies since 1880, Shaquille is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 43 babies (100%), again the 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 Shaquille
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 Shaquille and names like it
- Compare Shaquille and ShaquileBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShaquille peaked in 1993.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shaquille since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Shaquille: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Shaquille.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shaquille alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.