Shah
A masculine name of Persian origin meaning "king" or "sovereign".
Name Census estimates that about 420 living Americans carry the first name Shah. It is a predominantly male name (97.7% of registrations). The average person named Shah today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shah births was 2009 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
420
~ 1 in 816,082 Americans
Peak year
2009
22 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,112
Tracked since 1972
Census
Shah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,731 people with the first name Shah, which placed it at #8,387 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,387
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,731 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
79.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shah is Asian/Pacific Islander at 79.8%. The next largest groups are White (6.1%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander79.8% · 1,382
- White6.1% · 106
- Two or more races6.0% · 104
- Black or African American5.8% · 100
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Shah
Shah leans heavily male at 97.7% of total registrations, but 10 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shah as a male name
- Ranked #6,112 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (22 births)
Shah as a female name
- Ranked #18,704 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 1979 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shah leans strongly male. 1,499 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 230 female bearers (13.3%).
Popularity
Shah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 113 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Shah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shah
The name Shah has its origins in the Persian language, tracing back to ancient Persia, modern-day Iran. It is derived from the Old Persian word "khshayathiya," meaning "king" or "sovereign." The name's roots can be traced back to the Achaemenid Empire, which ruled over a vast territory from around 550 BCE to 330 BCE.
One of the earliest known references to the name Shah can be found in the Behistun Inscription, a monumental rock relief carved on Mount Behistun in modern-day Iran. This inscription, dating back to around 520 BCE, records the accomplishments of King Darius I, who is known as Darius the Great. The inscription refers to Darius as "khshayathiya khshayathiyanam," meaning "king of kings."
Throughout the history of Persia and the subsequent Islamic empires, the title "Shah" was used by numerous rulers and monarchs. Some of the most notable individuals who bore this name include:
1. Ardashir I (180 CE - 242 CE), the founder of the Sasanian Empire, which ruled over a vast territory spanning modern-day Iran, Iraq, and parts of Central Asia.
2. Shah Abbas I (1571 - 1629), one of the most influential rulers of the Safavid Empire, known for his military campaigns, cultural achievements, and architectural projects.
3. Shah Jahan (1592 - 1666), the fifth Mughal emperor of India, who commissioned the construction of the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra.
4. Shah Ismail I (1487 - 1524), the founder of the Safavid Dynasty and the first to establish Shia Islam as the official religion of Persia.
5. Shah Rukh (1377 - 1447), a Timurid ruler and the son of Amir Timur (Tamerlane), known for his patronage of art, literature, and architecture.
The name Shah has been deeply intertwined with the history and culture of the Persian civilization, representing power, authority, and sovereignty. It has been a significant part of the Persian royal tradition and has been carried by many influential rulers and monarchs throughout the centuries.
People
Shah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 420 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 816,082 US residents.
Is Shah a common name?
We classify Shah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 428 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shah was 2009, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shah is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,731 people with the name Shah, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,387 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shah leans strongly male. 1,499 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 230 female bearers (13.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shah is Asian/Pacific Islander at 79.8%. The next largest groups are White (6.1%) and Two or More Races (6.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shah most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Shah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.8% (1,382 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shah a male name?
Yes, 97.7% of people registered as Shah in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Shah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Shah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.