Shay
Shay is given to both girls and boys: 184 girls and 77 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,227 among girls’ names and #1,989 among boys’, #1,865 among all names counting both); 13,251 Americans have been recorded with it since 1932 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Shay every year since 1992.
An estimated 12,800 Americans named Shay and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 11 and 40.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shay by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shay mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shay is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.”
Also “a diminutive of the male given name Seamus.”
Variant of Shea, from Irish Ó Séaghdha.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shay?
#1,227 among girls’ names, 2025
Shay rose from #1,379 in 2015 to #1,227 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.10 to 0.11 per 1,000.
409 babies in 2021, the peak
Shay peaked in 2021, when 409 babies were given it (300 girls, #903 among girls’ names). The 261 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 64% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 184 | #1,227 | 77 | #1,989 |
| 2024 | 208 | #1,159 | 98 | #1,706 |
| 2023 | 255 | #1,000 | 90 | #1,802 |
| 2022 | 301 | #914 | 102 | #1,693 |
| 2021 | 300 | #903 | 109 | #1,589 |
| 2020 | 277 | #934 | 87 | #1,763 |
| 2019 | 199 | #1,184 | 74 | #1,995 |
| 2018 | 168 | #1,344 | 87 | #1,774 |
| 2017 | 180 | #1,307 | 72 | #1,999 |
| 2016 | 171 | #1,378 | 88 | #1,761 |
Every recorded year (74)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 172 | #1,379 | 62 | #2,205 |
| 2014 | 144 | #1,525 | 53 | #2,422 |
| 2013 | 115 | #1,791 | 53 | #2,394 |
| 2012 | 84 | #2,261 | 61 | #2,180 |
| 2011 | 102 | #1,951 | 76 | #1,859 |
| 2010 | 112 | #1,828 | 68 | #2,030 |
| 2009 | 109 | #1,930 | 86 | #1,771 |
| 2008 | 148 | #1,559 | 75 | #1,929 |
| 2007 | 127 | #1,721 | 88 | #1,719 |
| 2006 | 122 | #1,721 | 92 | #1,594 |
| 2005 | 123 | #1,637 | 90 | #1,565 |
| 2004 | 141 | #1,450 | 92 | #1,480 |
| 2003 | 131 | #1,492 | 101 | #1,354 |
| 2002 | 140 | #1,383 | 75 | #1,614 |
| 2001 | 125 | #1,503 | 61 | #1,833 |
| 2000 | 157 | #1,250 | 93 | #1,366 |
| 1999 | 167 | #1,164 | 84 | #1,404 |
| 1998 | 148 | #1,231 | 90 | #1,333 |
| 1997 | 157 | #1,171 | 101 | #1,186 |
| 1996 | 158 | #1,152 | 116 | #1,055 |
| 1995 | 161 | #1,103 | 129 | #978 |
| 1994 | 157 | #1,137 | 130 | #966 |
| 1993 | 127 | #1,322 | 115 | #1,028 |
| 1992 | 129 | #1,307 | 109 | #1,051 |
| 1991 | 117 | #1,376 | 154 | #833 |
| 1990 | 128 | #1,273 | 118 | #958 |
| 1989 | 124 | #1,270 | 123 | #918 |
| 1988 | 106 | #1,348 | 128 | #841 |
| 1987 | 114 | #1,246 | 106 | #918 |
| 1986 | 92 | #1,402 | 64 | #1,196 |
| 1985 | 93 | #1,391 | 73 | #1,090 |
| 1984 | 97 | #1,292 | 67 | #1,108 |
| 1983 | 92 | #1,316 | 57 | #1,217 |
| 1982 | 99 | #1,291 | 62 | #1,177 |
| 1981 | 116 | #1,157 | 79 | #1,028 |
| 1980 | 134 | #1,062 | 87 | #966 |
| 1979 | 89 | #1,391 | 86 | #959 |
| 1978 | 107 | #1,181 | 71 | #1,038 |
| 1977 | 65 | #1,633 | 77 | #979 |
| 1976 | 84 | #1,306 | 72 | #987 |
| 1975 | 98 | #1,190 | 74 | #959 |
| 1974 | 130 | #958 | 78 | #922 |
| 1973 | 115 | #1,025 | 79 | #903 |
| 1972 | 116 | #1,015 | 65 | #1,005 |
| 1971 | 149 | #894 | 55 | #1,107 |
| 1970 | 133 | #958 | 69 | #976 |
| 1969 | 53 | #1,663 | 38 | #1,300 |
| 1968 | 34 | #2,084 | 32 | #1,387 |
| 1967 | 28 | #2,313 | 11 | #2,585 |
| 1966 | 22 | #2,648 | 18 | #1,879 |
| 1965 | 33 | #2,057 | 8 | #3,210 |
| 1964 | 18 | #3,089 | 14 | #2,296 |
| 1963 | 27 | #2,349 | 14 | #2,283 |
| 1962 | 29 | #2,250 | 13 | #2,347 |
| 1961 | 20 | #2,817 | 16 | #2,135 |
| 1960 | 11 | #4,128 | 12 | #2,520 |
| 1959 | 9 | #4,574 | 5 | #4,492 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,317 | under 5 | |
| 1957 | 15 | #3,127 | 5 | #4,472 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,852 | under 5 | |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,568 | under 5 | |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,648 | 5 | #4,291 |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,961 | under 5 | |
| 1932 | under 5 | 5 | #4,213 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Shay a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 13,251 Americans recorded as Shay, 62% are girls and 38% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shay: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shay, and how old are they?
12,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 13,251 Americans ever recorded as Shay. The median Shay alive today is 27 years old; half are between 11 and 40.
The 2020 Census counted 13,892 people named Shay (9,311 women and girls, 4,581 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,946 born in the U.S. The Census count is 27% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 199 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,120 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,410 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,380 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,700 |
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 Shay born?
The states with the most babies named Shay are California, Pennsylvania and Florida, with 50% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 38 | #1,223 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 21 | #643 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 15 | #1,420 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 14 | #1,103 | 0.7× |
| New York | 13 | #1,149 | 0.5× |
| Texas | 11 | #2,021 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 10 | #953 | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 7 | #1,020 | 0.4× |
| Minnesota | 7 | #721 | 0.5× |
| Massachusetts | 7 | #753 | 0.4× |
Where Shay is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shay is most over-represented in Utah: since 1932 it was given 1.4 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 Shay 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 24,842 babies since 1880, Shay is the most given (53% of them). In 2025 it was given to 261 of their 405 babies (64%), 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 Shay
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 Shay and names like it
- Compare Shay and ShaeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sShay peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shay since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Shay: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Shay.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Shay alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.