Shaw
Shaw is given to both girls and boys: 6 girls and 21 boys were given it in 2025 (#14,678 among girls’ names and #4,835 among boys’, #8,606 among all names counting both); 1,398 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,310 Americans named Shaw and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 11 and 42.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shaw by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shaw?
#4,835 among boys’ names, 2025
Shaw fell from #3,577 in 2015 to #4,835 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 16.2 to 12.3 per million.
39 babies in 2016, the peak
Shaw peaked in 2016, when 39 babies were given it (33 boys, #3,424 among boys’ names). The 27 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 69% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 21 | #4,835 | 12.3 |
| 2024 | 25 | #4,301 | 14.5 |
| 2023 | 26 | #4,194 | 15.2 |
| 2022 | 34 | #3,451 | 19.5 |
| 2021 | 32 | #3,564 | 18.3 |
| 2020 | 39 | #3,021 | 22.6 |
| 2019 | 31 | #3,620 | 17.3 |
| 2018 | 31 | #3,589 | 17.1 |
| 2017 | 28 | #3,870 | 15.1 |
| 2016 | 33 | #3,424 | 17.4 |
Every recorded year (72)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 31 | #3,577 | 16.2 |
| 2014 | 25 | #4,108 | 13.0 |
| 2013 | 29 | #3,645 | 15.3 |
| 2012 | 36 | #3,160 | 19.0 |
| 2011 | 25 | #4,084 | 13.2 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,988 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 18 | #5,276 | 9.1 |
| 2008 | 19 | #5,031 | 9.3 |
| 2007 | 25 | #4,099 | 12.0 |
| 2006 | 31 | #3,438 | 15.1 |
| 2005 | 14 | #5,826 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 15 | #5,443 | 7.6 |
| 2003 | 13 | #5,824 | 6.6 |
| 2002 | 23 | #3,759 | 11.8 |
| 2001 | 25 | #3,489 | 12.9 |
| 2000 | 22 | #3,733 | 11.2 |
| 1999 | 14 | #4,982 | 7.3 |
| 1998 | 20 | #3,681 | 10.5 |
| 1997 | 24 | #3,137 | 12.7 |
| 1996 | 18 | #3,799 | 9.5 |
| 1995 | 19 | #3,528 | 10.0 |
| 1994 | 18 | #3,722 | 9.3 |
| 1993 | 18 | #3,628 | 9.2 |
| 1992 | 23 | #2,980 | 11.5 |
| 1991 | 13 | #4,437 | 6.4 |
| 1990 | 19 | #3,283 | 9.3 |
| 1989 | 19 | #3,182 | 9.5 |
| 1988 | 15 | #3,496 | 7.8 |
| 1987 | 23 | #2,454 | 12.3 |
| 1986 | 25 | #2,275 | 13.6 |
| 1985 | 22 | #2,416 | 11.9 |
| 1984 | 9 | #4,494 | 5.0 |
| 1983 | 19 | #2,557 | 10.6 |
| 1982 | 18 | #2,689 | 9.9 |
| 1981 | 19 | #2,558 | 10.6 |
| 1980 | 10 | #4,086 | 5.6 |
| 1979 | 19 | #2,548 | 11.0 |
| 1978 | 23 | #2,118 | 14.0 |
| 1977 | 12 | #3,354 | 7.3 |
| 1976 | 18 | #2,494 | 11.5 |
| 1975 | 23 | #2,053 | 14.7 |
| 1974 | 28 | #1,742 | 17.8 |
| 1973 | 18 | #2,302 | 11.5 |
| 1972 | 20 | #2,069 | 12.3 |
| 1971 | 16 | #2,452 | 9.0 |
| 1970 | 18 | #2,201 | 9.7 |
| 1969 | 13 | #2,529 | 7.3 |
| 1968 | 10 | #2,881 | 5.8 |
| 1967 | 8 | #3,195 | 4.6 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,202 | 4.5 |
| 1965 | 8 | #3,209 | 4.3 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,970 | 3.0 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,539 | 2.5 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,536 | 2.4 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,297 | 3.8 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,930 | 2.8 |
| 1958 | 5 | #4,421 | 2.4 |
| 1954 | 5 | #4,290 | 2.5 |
| 1939 | 5 | #3,911 | 4.5 |
| 1922 | 7 | #3,815 | 6.4 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,877 | 4.7 |
| 1914 | 6 | #3,214 | 9.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shaw a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,398 Americans recorded as Shaw, 4% are girls and 96% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shaw: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shaw, and how old are they?
1,310 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 1,398 Americans ever recorded as Shaw. The median Shaw alive today is 25 years old; half are between 11 and 42.
The 2020 Census counted 1,683 people named Shaw (288 women and girls, 1,395 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,154 born in the U.S. The Census count is 46% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Shaw rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 1 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 30 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 243 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 282 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 339 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 418 |
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).
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Shaw
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 Shaw and names like it
- Compare Shaw and NikolaosBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sShaw peaked in 2016.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shaw since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Shaw.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Shaw alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.