Sheniqua
Sheniqua was last recorded in 1998, when 6 babies were given it; 703 Americans have been recorded with it between 1970 and 1998 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sheniqua by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sheniqua mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sheniqua is “a female given name originating as a coinage, of African-American usage, variant of Shaniqua.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sheniqua?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #13,854, in 1998; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
80 babies in 1991, the peak
Sheniqua peaked in 1991, when 80 girls were given it, #1,793 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 6 | #13,854 | 3.4 |
| 1997 | 7 | #11,900 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 16 | #6,011 | 9.1 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,324 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 27 | #3,990 | 15.1 |
| 1993 | 31 | #3,565 | 17.1 |
| 1992 | 55 | #2,376 | 29.8 |
| 1991 | 80 | #1,793 | 42.7 |
| 1990 | 51 | #2,427 | 26.9 |
| 1989 | 22 | #4,341 | 11.9 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 21 | #4,285 | 11.8 |
| 1987 | 31 | #3,084 | 17.8 |
| 1986 | 22 | #3,867 | 12.8 |
| 1985 | 30 | #3,070 | 17.4 |
| 1984 | 27 | #3,220 | 16.0 |
| 1983 | 22 | #3,660 | 13.2 |
| 1982 | 18 | #4,310 | 10.6 |
| 1981 | 20 | #3,980 | 12.0 |
| 1980 | 27 | #3,199 | 16.3 |
| 1979 | 23 | #3,519 | 14.3 |
| 1978 | 27 | #3,001 | 17.6 |
| 1977 | 30 | #2,765 | 19.6 |
| 1976 | 16 | #4,125 | 10.9 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,554 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 10 | #5,701 | 6.8 |
| 1973 | 18 | #3,609 | 12.3 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,858 | 5.9 |
| 1971 | 13 | #4,497 | 7.8 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,834 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sheniqua a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sheniqua has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 29 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sheniqua: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sheniqua, and how old are they?
An estimated 679 Americans named Sheniqua and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 39 years old and half are between 35 and 46. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 637 people named Sheniqua (637 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 685 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
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 Sheniqua born?
The states with the most babies named Sheniqua are Texas, New York and North Carolina, with 89% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 109 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| New York | 106 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| North Carolina | 20 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Louisiana | 10 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 8 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Virginia | 6 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Alabama | 5 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Sheniqua is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sheniqua is most over-represented in New York: since 1970 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 Sheniqua 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 1,475 babies since 1880, Sheniqua is the most given (48% of them).
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 Sheniqua
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 Sheniqua and names like it
- Compare Sheniqua and ShenequaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSheniqua peaked in 1991.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sheniqua since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Sheniqua: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Sheniqua.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Sheniqua alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.