Shaul
Shaul was given to 24 boys in 2025, #4,367 among boys’ names; 730 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shaul by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shaul mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shaul is “a male given name from Hebrew, variant of Saul.”
/ʃɑˈuːl/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shaul?
#4,367 among boys’ names, 2025
Shaul rose from #5,700 in 2015 to #4,367 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 8.3 to 14.1 per million.
33 babies in 2021, the peak
Shaul peaked in 2021, when 33 boys were given it, #3,480 among boys’ names. The 24 births of 2025 are 73% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | #4,367 | 14.1 |
| 2024 | 24 | #4,411 | 13.9 |
| 2023 | 28 | #3,980 | 16.4 |
| 2022 | 28 | #3,971 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 33 | #3,480 | 18.9 |
| 2020 | 24 | #4,254 | 13.9 |
| 2019 | 31 | #3,619 | 17.3 |
| 2018 | 26 | #4,080 | 14.3 |
| 2017 | 18 | #5,264 | 9.7 |
| 2016 | 29 | #3,759 | 15.3 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 16 | #5,700 | 8.3 |
| 2014 | 21 | #4,677 | 10.9 |
| 2013 | 20 | #4,768 | 10.6 |
| 2012 | 24 | #4,225 | 12.7 |
| 2011 | 25 | #4,083 | 13.2 |
| 2010 | 27 | #3,885 | 14.1 |
| 2009 | 28 | #3,808 | 14.1 |
| 2008 | 16 | #5,720 | 7.8 |
| 2007 | 14 | #6,208 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 12 | #6,837 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 12 | #6,557 | 6.0 |
| 2004 | 17 | #4,964 | 8.6 |
| 2003 | 10 | #7,153 | 5.1 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,533 | 4.6 |
| 2000 | 11 | #6,236 | 5.6 |
| 1999 | 9 | #7,007 | 4.7 |
| 1998 | 12 | #5,405 | 6.3 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,977 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 10 | #5,897 | 5.3 |
| 1995 | 7 | #7,673 | 3.7 |
| 1994 | 9 | #6,267 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 11 | #5,290 | 5.6 |
| 1992 | 7 | #7,272 | 3.5 |
| 1991 | 13 | #4,435 | 6.4 |
| 1990 | 11 | #4,932 | 5.4 |
| 1989 | 8 | #6,121 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 9 | #5,149 | 4.7 |
| 1987 | 8 | #5,376 | 4.3 |
| 1986 | 9 | #4,777 | 4.9 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,634 | 4.9 |
| 1984 | 12 | #3,648 | 6.6 |
| 1983 | 8 | #4,845 | 4.5 |
| 1982 | 6 | #6,274 | 3.3 |
| 1981 | 6 | #6,130 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 5 | #7,129 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,274 | 4.1 |
| 1977 | 9 | #4,104 | 5.5 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,353 | 3.2 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,987 | 3.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shaul a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shaul has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 49 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shaul: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shaul, and how old are they?
An estimated 714 Americans named Shaul and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 7 and 28. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 723 people named Shaul (2 women and girls, 721 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 564 born in the U.S. The Census count is 28% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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 Shaul born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 13 | #984 | 7.7× |
Where Shaul is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shaul is most over-represented in New York: since 1973 it was given 7.7 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 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 Shaul 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 878 babies since 1880, Shaul is the most given (83% of them). In 2025 it was given to 24 of their 24 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 Shaul
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 Shaul and names like it
- Compare Shaul and ShailBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sShaul peaked in 2021.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shaul since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Shaul.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Shaul alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.