Shirah
Shirah was last recorded in 2020, when 6 babies were given it; 291 Americans have been recorded with it between 1969 and 2020 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shirah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shirah?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #14,851, in 2020; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1983, the peak
Shirah peaked in 1983, when 14 girls were given it, #5,103 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 6 | #14,851 | 3.7 |
| 2013 | 5 | #18,880 | 2.8 |
| 2012 | 7 | #14,753 | 4.0 |
| 2011 | 11 | #10,291 | 6.3 |
| 2010 | 8 | #13,294 | 4.5 |
| 2009 | 7 | #15,004 | 3.8 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,481 | 5.3 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,508 | 5.2 |
| 2006 | 7 | #14,915 | 3.7 |
| 2005 | 7 | #14,285 | 3.8 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 7 | #13,977 | 3.8 |
| 2003 | 5 | #18,004 | 2.7 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,713 | 2.8 |
| 2001 | 5 | #17,552 | 2.8 |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,628 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 6 | #14,156 | 3.4 |
| 1998 | 6 | #13,861 | 3.4 |
| 1997 | 5 | #15,784 | 2.9 |
| 1996 | 10 | #8,724 | 5.7 |
| 1995 | 8 | #10,380 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 7 | #11,602 | 3.9 |
| 1993 | 6 | #13,195 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,237 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 13 | #6,815 | 6.8 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,658 | 4.9 |
| 1988 | 8 | #9,114 | 4.5 |
| 1987 | 6 | #11,092 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,397 | 4.7 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,150 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 6 | #10,197 | 3.6 |
| 1983 | 14 | #5,103 | 8.4 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,485 | 7.7 |
| 1981 | 11 | #6,252 | 6.6 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,318 | 5.4 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,935 | 5.0 |
| 1978 | 9 | #6,858 | 5.9 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,488 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shirah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shirah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 37 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shirah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shirah, and how old are they?
An estimated 284 Americans named Shirah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 21 and 42. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 315 people named Shirah (311 women and girls, 4 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 281 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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).
How common is the spelling Shirah?
Shirah is a less common spelling of Shira: SSA has recorded 291 Shirah and 5,815 Shira since 1880.
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 7,916 babies since 1880, Shirah is the fourth most given (3.7% of them). In 2025 none of their 94 babies recorded by SSA was a Shirah (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Shirah
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 Shirah and names like it
- Compare Shirah and ShiraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sShirah peaked in 1983.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shirah since 1910.
- The top names of 1983The year the most babies were named Shirah.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shirah alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.