Shemaiah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh has heard."
Name Census estimates that about 270 living Americans carry the first name Shemaiah. It is a predominantly female name (95.7% of registrations). The average person named Shemaiah today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shemaiah births was 2002 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shemaiah. 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 Shemaiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
270
~ 1 in 1,269,461 Americans
Peak year
2002
21 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2002 SSA rank
#10,463
Tracked since 1979
Census
Shemaiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 330 people with the first name Shemaiah, which placed it at #27,622 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
#27,622
National first-name rank
People counted
330
330 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
76.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shemaiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shemaiah is Black at 76.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.4%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Shemaiah 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 Shemaiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American76.7% · 253
- White6.4% · 21
- Two or more races6.4% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.1% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Shemaiah
Shemaiah leans heavily female at 95.7% of total registrations, but 12 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shemaiah as a male name
- Ranked #10,463 in 2002
- 6 male births in 2002
- Peak: 1986 (6 births)
Shemaiah as a female name
- Ranked #14,903 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2004 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shemaiah on both sides of the split. Of the 333 people counted with this name, 88 were male (26.4%) and 245 were female (73.6%).
Popularity
Shemaiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shemaiah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 124 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
Shemaiah 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 Shemaiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shemaiah
The name Shemaiah has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "shama" meaning "to hear" and "Yah" which is a shortened form of the name of the Hebrew God, Yahweh. The name can be translated to mean "the Lord has heard" or "the Lord hears."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shemaiah can be found in the Hebrew Bible, where it appears as the name of several individuals. In the Book of Ezra, Shemaiah is mentioned as a prophet who warned the Israelites against intermarrying with non-Israelites. In the Book of Nehemiah, Shemaiah is described as a false prophet who tries to persuade Nehemiah to hide in the temple to avoid harm.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Shemaiah. One of the earliest was Shemaiah ben Delaiah, a priest who lived during the reign of King David in the 10th century BCE. Another was Shemaiah the Nehelamite, who was one of the leaders of the tribe of Benjamin during the time of King David.
In the Middle Ages, Shemaiah ben Paltiel Gaon was a prominent Jewish scholar and head of the Pumbedita Academy in Babylon in the 9th century CE. He was known for his contributions to Jewish law and literature.
In more recent times, Shemaiah Zalmanov was a Russian-born Jewish educator and rabbi who lived in the 19th century. He was instrumental in establishing Jewish schools and educational institutions in Russia and Ukraine.
Another notable figure was Shemaiah Yosef Novogrodzki, a Polish-born rabbi and Talmudic scholar who lived in the 16th century. He was renowned for his expertise in Jewish law and his commentaries on the Talmud.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Shemaiah, which has its roots in the ancient Hebrew language and culture.
People
Shemaiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shemaiah 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
Shemaiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shemaiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 270 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shemaiah 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 1,269,461 US residents.
Is Shemaiah a common name?
We classify Shemaiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 276 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shemaiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shemaiah was 2002, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shemaiah is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shemaiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 330 people with the name Shemaiah, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,622 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 Shemaiah 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 Shemaiah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shemaiah on both sides of the split. Of the 333 people counted with this name, 88 were male (26.4%) and 245 were female (73.6%). 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 Shemaiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shemaiah is Black at 76.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.4%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Shemaiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shemaiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.7% (253 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 Shemaiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shemaiah a female name?
Yes, 95.7% of people registered as Shemaiah 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 Shemaiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shemaiah 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 Shemaiah 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 called Shemaiah?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.