Sheppard
Sheppard was given to 40 boys in 2025, #3,080 among boys’ names; 716 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sheppard by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sheppard mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sheppard is “a male given name.” Its etymology gives the sense “shepherd” (schepherde).
From Middle English, from schepherde (“shepherd”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sheppard?
#3,080 among boys’ names, 2025
Sheppard rose from #6,257 in 2015 to #3,080 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.3 to 23.4 per million.
40 babies in 2025, the peak
Sheppard peaked in 2025, when 40 boys were given it, #3,080 among boys’ names. In 2024 it went to 35 boys.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 40 | #3,080 | 23.4 |
| 2024 | 35 | #3,383 | 20.3 |
| 2023 | 38 | #3,215 | 22.2 |
| 2022 | 31 | #3,676 | 17.8 |
| 2021 | 28 | #3,897 | 16.0 |
| 2020 | 23 | #4,396 | 13.3 |
| 2019 | 33 | #3,482 | 18.4 |
| 2018 | 25 | #4,197 | 13.8 |
| 2017 | 20 | #4,906 | 10.8 |
| 2016 | 23 | #4,445 | 12.1 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 14 | #6,257 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 10 | #8,031 | 5.2 |
| 2013 | 9 | #8,652 | 4.8 |
| 2012 | 11 | #7,462 | 5.8 |
| 2011 | 9 | #8,650 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | 10 | #8,037 | 5.2 |
| 2009 | 10 | #8,202 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 5 | #14,281 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 6 | #12,129 | 2.9 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,899 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 10 | #7,555 | 5.0 |
| 2004 | 9 | #8,054 | 4.5 |
| 2003 | 5 | #12,472 | 2.5 |
| 2000 | 5 | #11,854 | 2.5 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,844 | 3.2 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,659 | 2.7 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,279 | 4.1 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,358 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 6 | #5,140 | 3.8 |
| 1972 | 6 | #4,906 | 3.7 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,499 | 3.8 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,973 | 3.0 |
| 1963 | 5 | #4,542 | 2.5 |
| 1960 | 8 | #3,299 | 3.8 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,493 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 9 | #3,001 | 4.2 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,931 | 2.8 |
| 1956 | 7 | #3,500 | 3.3 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,465 | 3.4 |
| 1954 | 8 | #3,140 | 3.9 |
| 1953 | 10 | #2,687 | 5.1 |
| 1952 | 12 | #2,356 | 6.2 |
| 1950 | 10 | #2,556 | 5.6 |
| 1949 | 10 | #2,591 | 5.6 |
| 1948 | 5 | #4,112 | 2.8 |
| 1947 | 7 | #3,330 | 3.8 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,974 | 3.5 |
| 1942 | 8 | #2,914 | 5.8 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,870 | 4.3 |
| 1939 | 8 | #2,796 | 7.2 |
| 1938 | 5 | #3,960 | 4.5 |
| 1936 | 5 | #3,983 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,132 | 4.8 |
| 1933 | 7 | #3,241 | 7.1 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,084 | 5.4 |
| 1927 | 5 | #4,706 | 4.4 |
| 1926 | 9 | #3,106 | 8.1 |
| 1924 | 11 | #2,800 | 9.7 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,172 | 5.5 |
| 1921 | 8 | #3,466 | 7.3 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,209 | 5.6 |
| 1919 | 9 | #3,087 | 9.2 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,663 | 6.9 |
| 1917 | 9 | #2,916 | 9.7 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,771 | 7.1 |
| 1914 | 5 | #3,687 | 7.6 |
| 1880 | 5 | #1,041 | 45.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Sheppard a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sheppard has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 67 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sheppard: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sheppard, and how old are they?
An estimated 540 Americans named Sheppard and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (75% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 4 and 22. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 448 people named Sheppard (17 women and girls, 431 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 374 born in the U.S. The Census count is 20% 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,435 babies since 1880, Sheppard is the second most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 40 of their 308 babies (13%), again the second 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 Sheppard
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 Sheppard and names like it
- Compare Sheppard and ShepardBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSheppard peaked in 2025.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sheppard since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Sheppard.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sheppard alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.