Shaul
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "asked for" or "desired".
Name Census estimates that about 694 living Americans carry the first name Shaul. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shaul today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaul births was 2021 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaul. 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 Shaul with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
694
~ 1 in 493,882 Americans
Peak year
2021
33 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,395
Tracked since 1973
Census
Shaul in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 723 people with the first name Shaul, which placed it at #15,793 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
#15,793
National first-name rank
People counted
723
723 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shaul
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaul is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Black (3.5%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Shaul 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 Shaul at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.4% · 661
- Black or African American3.5% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 10
- Two or more races0.6% · 4
Popularity
Shaul: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaul 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 237 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Shaul remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shaul 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 Shaul during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shauls live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shaul
The name Shaul has its origins in the Hebrew language, tracing back to ancient times in the Middle East. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "sha'ul," which means "asked for" or "demanded." The earliest known use of the name dates back to biblical times, where it appears as the name of the first king of the united Kingdom of Israel, Saul.
Saul, also known as Shaul, is a prominent figure in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the books of Samuel. He was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel around 1020 BCE and reigned over Israel until his death in battle against the Philistines around 1000 BCE. Saul's story and his complex relationship with the future King David are extensively documented in the biblical narrative.
Another historical figure who bore the name Shaul was Rabbi Shaul, also known as Paul the Apostle, who lived in the first century CE. He was a Jewish-Roman scholar and one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, responsible for spreading Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. His writings and teachings form a significant part of the New Testament.
In the Middle Ages, the name Shaul was used by several notable Jewish scholars and rabbis. One example is Shaul ben Isaac Astruk ha-Levi, a prominent 14th-century Spanish rabbi and philosopher who lived in Barcelona.
Moving forward in history, Shaul Mofaz, born in 1948, is an Israeli politician and former military leader who served as the 16th Prime Minister of Israel for a brief period in 2022.
Another notable figure with the name Shaul is Shaul Ladany, born in 1936, a Israeli Olympic walker and Holocaust survivor. He is known for his remarkable achievements in race walking and his resilience in overcoming the trauma of the Holocaust.
While the name Shaul has its roots in the Hebrew language and culture, it has been adopted and used in various forms across different regions and languages. The name carries a rich historical and cultural significance, particularly within the Jewish and Christian traditions.
People
Shaul + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaul 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
Shaul: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaul?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 694 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaul 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 493,882 US residents.
Is Shaul a common name?
We classify Shaul as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 706 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaul most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaul was 2021, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaul is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shaul in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 723 people with the name Shaul, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,793 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 Shaul 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 Shaul?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaul appears almost entirely male. Of the 723 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Shaul?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaul is White at 91.4%. The next largest groups are Black (3.5%) and Hispanic (3.2%). 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 Shaul most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shaul in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.4% (661 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 Shaul in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shaul a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shaul 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 Shaul still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shaul 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 Shaul 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 Shaul?
Want to know how many people have the name Shaul? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.