Shamiah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "elevated" or "supreme".
Name Census estimates that about 579 living Americans carry the first name Shamiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shamiah today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shamiah births was 2004 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shamiah. 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 Shamiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
579
~ 1 in 591,976 Americans
Peak year
2004
42 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2019 SSA rank
#12,282
Tracked since 1977
Census
Shamiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 472 people with the first name Shamiah, which placed it at #21,491 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
#21,491
National first-name rank
People counted
472
472 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shamiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamiah is Black at 91.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and White (1.7%). 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 Shamiah 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 Shamiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.3% · 431
- Two or more races4.2% · 20
- White1.7% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 5
Popularity
Shamiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shamiah from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 305 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Shamiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shamiah 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 Shamiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shamiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, Michigan recorded the most babies named Shamiah, while South Carolina, New York, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shamiah
The name Shamiah is of Arabic origin and is derived from the word "shams" meaning "sun" or "sunshine." It is a feminine name that has been in use for centuries across the Middle East and parts of North Africa.
The earliest known record of the name Shamiah dates back to the 7th century AD, when it was mentioned in various Arabic texts and manuscripts. It is believed that the name gained popularity during the Islamic Golden Age, a period of significant cultural, economic, and scientific advancements in the Muslim world.
In Islamic tradition, the sun is often associated with divine light and guidance. As such, the name Shamiah may have been chosen to symbolize the radiance and warmth of divine knowledge. Some scholars suggest that the name may have been inspired by verses from the Quran that refer to the sun as a sign of God's creation.
One of the earliest known historical figures to bear the name Shamiah was Shamiah bint Numan al-Ghamidi, a renowned scholar and poet who lived in the 8th century AD. She was highly regarded for her expertise in various fields, including literature, history, and Islamic jurisprudence.
Another notable figure was Shamiah al-Baghdadiya, a celebrated poet and calligrapher who lived in the 10th century AD during the Abbasid Caliphate. Her works were widely admired for their eloquence and artistic expression.
During the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt and Syria (13th-16th centuries), the name Shamiah was often bestowed upon princesses and noblewomen. One such figure was Shamiah bint al-Ashraf Khalil, a Mamluk princess known for her patronage of the arts and her charitable endeavors.
In the 16th century, Shamiah bint Qutb Shah was a prominent figure in the Qutb Shahi dynasty of the Golconda Sultanate in present-day India. She was renowned for her literary talents and her contributions to the cultural and intellectual life of the region.
More recently, Shamiah al-Rayes was a Syrian poet and activist who lived in the 20th century. She was a pioneering voice for women's rights and social reform in the Arab world, and her poetry often addressed themes of freedom, justice, and empowerment.
While the name Shamiah has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and has been embraced by various communities around the world, each adding their own cultural significance and interpretations to its meaning.
People
Shamiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shamiah 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
Shamiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shamiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 579 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shamiah 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 591,976 US residents.
Is Shamiah a common name?
We classify Shamiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 590 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shamiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shamiah was 2004, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shamiah is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shamiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 472 people with the name Shamiah, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,491 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 Shamiah 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 Shamiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shamiah leans strongly female. 475 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 7 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Shamiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamiah is Black at 91.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.2%) and White (1.7%). 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 Shamiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shamiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.3% (431 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 Shamiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shamiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shamiah 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 Shamiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shamiah 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 Shamiah 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 are named Shamiah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Shamiah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.