Shamaya
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "to hear; to listen".
Name Census estimates that about 811 living Americans carry the first name Shamaya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shamaya today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shamaya births was 2006 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shamaya. 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 Shamaya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
811
~ 1 in 422,632 Americans
Peak year
2006
57 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,960
Tracked since 1980
Census
Shamaya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 692 people with the first name Shamaya, which placed it at #16,339 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
#16,339
National first-name rank
People counted
692
692 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shamaya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamaya is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.6%) and White (2.7%). 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 Shamaya 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 Shamaya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.2% · 617
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 25
- White2.7% · 19
- Two or more races2.5% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 7
Popularity
Shamaya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shamaya from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 408 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shamaya 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 Shamaya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shamayas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Georgia, Florida, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Shamaya, while Texas, Illinois, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shamaya
The name Shamaya has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is a combination of two Hebrew words, "shama" meaning "to hear" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the Hebrew name for God, "Yahweh" or "Jehovah." The name can be interpreted as "God has heard" or "one who hears God."
The earliest known reference to the name Shamaya can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Book of Ezra, chapter 10, verse 32, a man named Shamaya is listed among the Israelites who had taken foreign wives during the period of the Babylonian exile.
In ancient times, the name Shamaya was relatively uncommon, but it gained popularity among Jewish communities in the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Rabbi Shamaya, a prominent Jewish scholar who lived in the 1st century CE and was a contemporary of the famous Rabbi Hillel.
During the Renaissance period, the name Shamaya was occasionally used by Jewish families in Europe. One notable bearer of this name was Shamaya ben Abraham, a 16th-century Italian rabbi and author who wrote a commentary on the Mishnah, a central text of Judaism.
Another historical figure named Shamaya was a 17th-century Polish Jewish mystic and Kabbalist who authored several works on Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah.
In the 19th century, a prominent American rabbi named Shamaya Aharon Wise gained recognition for his leadership in the Reform Jewish movement and his efforts to promote Jewish education in the United States.
Other historical individuals named Shamaya include a 20th-century Israeli author and poet, a renowned Israeli conductor and composer, and a prominent Israeli-American computer scientist and entrepreneur.
While the name Shamaya has its roots in Hebrew and Jewish culture, it has also been adopted by people from various backgrounds and faiths over the centuries, reflecting its beautiful meaning and linguistic heritage.
People
Shamaya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shamaya 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
Shamaya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shamaya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 811 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shamaya 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 422,632 US residents.
Is Shamaya a common name?
We classify Shamaya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 828 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shamaya most popular?
The single biggest year for Shamaya was 2006, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shamaya is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shamaya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 692 people with the name Shamaya, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,339 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 Shamaya 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 Shamaya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shamaya leans strongly female. 682 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Shamaya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamaya is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.6%) and White (2.7%). 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 Shamaya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shamaya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.2% (617 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 Shamaya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shamaya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shamaya in the SSA data are female. 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 Shamaya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shamaya 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 Shamaya 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 share the name Shamaya?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.