Shepherd
Shepherd was given to 1,408 boys in 2025, #246 among boys’ names; 7,815 Americans have been recorded with it since 1886 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,500 Americans named Shepherd and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 4 years old and half are between 2 and 8.
Shepherd came back: it left the boys’ top 1,000 after 1887 and returned in 2016.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shepherd by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shepherd mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shepherd is “a male given name.”
From shepherd.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shepherd?
#246 among boys’ names, 2025
Shepherd rose from #1,109 in 2015 to #246 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.09 to 0.82 per 1,000.
1,416 babies in 2025, the peak
Shepherd peaked in 2025, when 1,416 babies were given it (1,408 boys, #246 among boys’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,099 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,408 | #246 | 0.82 |
| 2024 | 1,099 | #311 | 0.64 |
| 2023 | 789 | #405 | 0.46 |
| 2022 | 619 | #494 | 0.35 |
| 2021 | 558 | #528 | 0.32 |
| 2020 | 463 | #595 | 0.27 |
| 2019 | 434 | #625 | 0.24 |
| 2018 | 339 | #716 | 0.19 |
| 2017 | 293 | #791 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 265 | #848 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (89)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 174 | #1,109 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 164 | #1,157 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 93 | #1,642 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 102 | #1,560 | 0.05 |
| 2011 | 103 | #1,541 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 102 | #1,564 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 70 | #2,002 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 65 | #2,117 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 34 | #3,295 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 39 | #2,925 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 32 | #3,223 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 9 | #8,053 | under 0.01 |
| 2003 | 17 | #4,775 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 9 | #7,535 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 6 | #10,352 | under 0.01 |
| 2000 | 8 | #8,089 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 8 | #7,753 | under 0.01 |
| 1998 | 12 | #5,406 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #6,525 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,834 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,839 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #10,022 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,959 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 8 | #6,125 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,533 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,930 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,625 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 7 | #5,036 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #3,899 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,613 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 13 | #2,719 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,887 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 8 | #3,326 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #3,204 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 10 | #2,749 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,972 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,541 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 10 | #2,875 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,989 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,931 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,879 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 10 | #2,773 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 9 | #2,945 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 10 | #2,713 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #4,267 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 9 | #2,846 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 10 | #2,590 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #3,612 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #4,188 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 15 | #1,940 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 6 | #3,284 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,071 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,973 | under 0.01 |
| 1941 | 5 | #3,939 | under 0.01 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,869 | under 0.01 |
| 1938 | 6 | #3,487 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,982 | under 0.01 |
| 1932 | 6 | #3,717 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,254 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 9 | #2,941 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 9 | #3,115 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,707 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 10 | #2,905 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 7 | #3,812 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 10 | #2,910 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,490 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 15 | #2,250 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 11 | #2,736 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 10 | #2,841 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,678 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,170 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 9 | #2,900 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,770 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 7 | #2,870 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,197 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 5 | #2,853 | 0.01 |
| 1888 | 5 | #1,162 | 0.04 |
| 1887 | 6 | #906 | 0.06 |
| 1886 | 5 | #1,087 | 0.05 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Shepherd a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shepherd has been given almost only to boys: 30 girls in 89 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shepherd: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shepherd, and how old are they?
7,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 7,815 Americans ever recorded as Shepherd. The median Shepherd alive today is 4 years old; half are between 2 and 8.
The 2020 Census counted 2,664 people named Shepherd (60 women and girls, 2,604 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,717 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 13 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 76 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 71 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 41 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 623 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 6,680 |
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 Shepherd born?
The states with the most babies named Shepherd are Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 199 | #195 | 1.3× |
| Tennessee | 95 | #92 | 2.3× |
| North Carolina | 92 | #135 | 1.7× |
| Georgia | 88 | #137 | 1.5× |
| California | 55 | #557 | 0.4× |
| Kentucky | 54 | #101 | 1.6× |
| Indiana | 51 | #168 | 1.0× |
| Alabama | 48 | #109 | 2.4× |
| Ohio | 48 | #264 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 47 | #420 | 0.6× |
Where Shepherd is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shepherd is most over-represented in Alabama: since 1910 it was given 2.4 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 boys’ 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 Shepherd 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 12,334 babies since 1880, Shepherd is the most given (63% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,416 of their 1,740 babies (81%), 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 Shepherd
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 Shepherd and names like it
- Compare Shepherd and ShepardBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sShepherd peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shepherd since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Shepherd.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Shepherd alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.