Shem — #6514 US boys' name

What the Data Says About Shem

The Social Security Administration has registered 740 babies named Shem between 1954 and 2024, spanning 71 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Shem currently holds the #6514 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1976, when 23 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Shem performed strongest in the 1970s, accumulating 156 births during that ten-year window. Across the 8 decades of recorded activity, Shem shows notable generational variation in parental adoption. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 15 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Utah and California. In total, SSA state-level files list Shem in 3 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Shem in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 740 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.