Humanverse

Sha

Sha is a girl's name that peaked in 1989, when it was the 3,253rd most popular in the United States. It is given to both boys and girls. It has not appeared in the national data since 2024. About 730 Shas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 41.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 8 16 24 32 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Sha boys named Sha

Girls and boys called Sha

Share of the name given to girls, 1880 to 2025 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years more girls than boys years more boys than girls

Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 639 girls and 127 boys in all, and in 1994 the split was 32 to 6.

The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 12 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.

By the numbers

Total US births
766
Estimated living today
730
Median age today
41
Peak year
1989
Best rank
3,253rd
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1962
Girls / boys
639 / 127

How old the living Shas are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 766 babies given the name since 1962, about 730 are alive — 96 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1984 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where Sha is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Sha is most concentrated in Alabama (11.1×), New York (5.9×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1989

The most popular girls’ names the year Sha peaked:

All the names of 1989

Sha elsewhere

CountrySpelling BirthsBest rank
England and Wales boys Sha 38 2,443rd

Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.

Related names

Sha against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Sha with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.