Sheena
Sheena was given to 13 girls in 2025, #8,275 among girls’ names; 22,447 Americans have been recorded with it since 1943 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 21,500 Americans named Sheena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 42 years old and half are between 39 and 43.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sheena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sheena mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sheena is “a female given name from Scottish Gaelic.” Its etymology gives the sense “God is gracious” (literally).
Anglicization of Scottish Gaelic Sìne and Síne, ultimately from Latin Joanna, from Koine Greek Ἰωάννα (Iōánna), from Hebrew יוֹחָנָה (Yôḥānāh, literally “God is gracious”), the feminized form of יְהוֹחָנָן (Yəhōḥānān) which produced John and its many doublets. Doublet of Ivana, Jana, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Joan, Joanna, Joanne, Johanna, Juana, Shavonne, Sian, Siobhan, Shane, Shaun, and Shauna.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sheena?
#8,275 among girls’ names, 2025
Sheena fell from #4,704 in 2015 to #8,275 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 16.8 to 8.1 per million.
3,609 babies in 1984, the peak
Sheena peaked in 1984, when 3,609 babies were given it (3,597 girls, #80 among girls’ names). The 13 births of 2025 are under 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,275 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 18 | #6,606 | 0.01 |
| 2023 | 12 | #8,900 | 0.01 |
| 2022 | 12 | #8,966 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 8 | #12,040 | under 0.01 |
| 2020 | 13 | #8,340 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 13 | #8,530 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 28 | #4,870 | 0.02 |
| 2017 | 20 | #6,253 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 26 | #5,266 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (83)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 30 | #4,704 | 0.02 |
| 2014 | 19 | #6,668 | 0.01 |
| 2013 | 22 | #5,984 | 0.01 |
| 2012 | 31 | #4,692 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 27 | #5,186 | 0.02 |
| 2010 | 27 | #5,220 | 0.02 |
| 2009 | 41 | #3,859 | 0.02 |
| 2008 | 42 | #3,847 | 0.02 |
| 2007 | 43 | #3,774 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 42 | #3,724 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 39 | #3,797 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 44 | #3,432 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 41 | #3,514 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 46 | #3,133 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 81 | #2,068 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 66 | #2,365 | 0.04 |
| 1999 | 52 | #2,692 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 80 | #1,916 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 90 | #1,727 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 114 | #1,442 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 141 | #1,221 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 181 | #1,025 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 247 | #810 | 0.14 |
| 1992 | 365 | #621 | 0.20 |
| 1991 | 418 | #561 | 0.22 |
| 1990 | 522 | #468 | 0.27 |
| 1989 | 767 | #328 | 0.42 |
| 1988 | 856 | #290 | 0.48 |
| 1987 | 1,154 | #232 | 0.66 |
| 1986 | 1,574 | #173 | 0.92 |
| 1985 | 3,062 | #91 | 1.8 |
| 1984 | 3,597 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 1983 | 2,636 | #107 | 1.6 |
| 1982 | 1,956 | #149 | 1.2 |
| 1981 | 657 | #356 | 0.39 |
| 1980 | 144 | #1,014 | 0.09 |
| 1979 | 143 | #1,004 | 0.09 |
| 1978 | 148 | #951 | 0.10 |
| 1977 | 148 | #941 | 0.10 |
| 1976 | 122 | #1,025 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 113 | #1,052 | 0.08 |
| 1974 | 127 | #974 | 0.09 |
| 1973 | 132 | #931 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 136 | #917 | 0.09 |
| 1971 | 114 | #1,063 | 0.07 |
| 1970 | 91 | #1,236 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 78 | #1,274 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 65 | #1,403 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 66 | #1,357 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 60 | #1,427 | 0.04 |
| 1965 | 77 | #1,237 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 100 | #1,095 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 101 | #1,081 | 0.05 |
| 1962 | 85 | #1,199 | 0.04 |
| 1961 | 73 | #1,302 | 0.04 |
| 1960 | 119 | #984 | 0.06 |
| 1959 | 123 | #947 | 0.06 |
| 1958 | 120 | #945 | 0.06 |
| 1957 | 164 | #788 | 0.08 |
| 1956 | 137 | #848 | 0.07 |
| 1955 | 33 | #1,870 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 20 | #2,506 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 28 | #1,965 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 37 | #1,606 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 28 | #1,875 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 34 | #1,620 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 26 | #1,912 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 26 | #1,893 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 37 | #1,573 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 18 | #2,301 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 14 | #2,437 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 11 | #2,923 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 9 | #3,454 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sheena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sheena has been given almost only to girls: 67 boys in 83 years of records.
Girls and boys named Sheena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sheena, and how old are they?
21,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 22,447 Americans ever recorded as Sheena. The median Sheena alive today is 42 years old; half are between 39 and 43.
The 2020 Census counted 20,577 people named Sheena (20,552 women and girls, 25 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 21,654 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 19 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,060 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,650 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 17,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 783 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 233 |
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 Sheena born?
The states with the most babies named Sheena are California, New York and Pennsylvania, with 22% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 1,866 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| New York | 1,316 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 1,034 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 1,023 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Florida | 968 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 912 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 911 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 776 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 740 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Tennessee | 671 | not ranked | 1.4× |
Where Sheena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sheena is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1943 it was given 2.1 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 Sheena 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 28,133 babies since 1880, Sheena is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 23 babies (57%), 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 Sheena
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 Sheena and names like it
- Compare Sheena and ShenaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sSheena peaked in 1984.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sheena since 1910.
- Scottish Gaelic namesWiktionary’s origin for Sheena: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1984The year the most babies were named Sheena.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Sheena alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.