Sharde
A feminine name of Hindi origin meaning "brave or confident woman".
Name Census estimates that about 936 living Americans carry the first name Sharde. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sharde today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sharde births was 1986 (190 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sharde. 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.
People living today
936
~ 1 in 366,191 Americans
Peak year
1986
190 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2008 SSA rank
#17,168
Tracked since 1985
Census
Sharde in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 789 people with the first name Sharde, which placed it at #14,812 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
#14,812
National first-name rank
People counted
789
789 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
86.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sharde
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharde is Black at 86.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Sharde 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 Sharde at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American86.6% · 683
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 44
- Two or more races3.5% · 28
- White2.5% · 20
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 3
Popularity
Sharde: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sharde from the 1980s through to the 2000s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 541 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sharde 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 Sharde during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shardes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Michigan, New York recorded the most babies named Sharde, while Wisconsin, Virginia, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sharde
The name Sharde has its origins in the Sanskrit language of ancient India, dating back to the 5th century BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "shard," which means "thunderbolt" or "lightning bolt." This suggests that the name may have been associated with strength, power, and intensity.
In ancient Hindu mythology, the thunderbolt was a weapon wielded by the gods, particularly the powerful deity Indra, the lord of the heavens and the ruler of the gods. The name Sharde could have been given to children in the hope that they would possess the strength and courage associated with the thunderbolt.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sharde can be found in the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. In this epic, there is a character named Shardeshvara, which means "lord of the thunderbolt." This character was a powerful warrior and a skilled archer, further reinforcing the connection between the name and strength.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Sharde. One of the most prominent was Sharde Devi, a 16th-century queen of the Garhwal Kingdom in present-day Uttarakhand, India. She was renowned for her bravery and leadership during a time of conflict and is remembered as a symbol of courage.
Another notable figure was Sharde Singh, a 17th-century Rajput warrior from the state of Mewar in Rajasthan, India. He was known for his valor in battle and his unwavering loyalty to his king, Maharana Pratap Singh I.
In the 19th century, there was a famous Indian poet and writer named Sharde Charan Mittra, who was born in 1835 in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was a celebrated figure in Bengali literature and made significant contributions to the literary and cultural renaissance of Bengal.
A more recent historical figure with the name Sharde was Sharde Mukherjee, an Indian independence activist and social reformer born in 1891 in Bengal. She was a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement and worked tirelessly for the empowerment of women and the upliftment of the underprivileged.
Lastly, in the field of sports, there was Sharde Gowda, an Indian cricketer who played domestic cricket for Karnataka in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a talented all-rounder and represented India in several Test matches and One Day Internationals.
People
Sharde + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sharde 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
Sharde: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sharde?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 936 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sharde 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 366,191 US residents.
Is Sharde a common name?
We classify Sharde as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 978 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sharde most popular?
The single biggest year for Sharde was 1986, when 190 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sharde is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sharde in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 789 people with the name Sharde, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,812 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 Sharde 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 Sharde?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sharde leans strongly female. 789 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.1%). 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 Sharde?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharde is Black at 86.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Sharde most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sharde in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.6% (683 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 Sharde in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sharde a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sharde 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 Sharde still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sharde 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 Sharde 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 Sharde?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Sharde, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.