Shiro
Shiro is a masculine Japanese name meaning "castle" or "white".
Name Census estimates that about 23 living Americans carry the first name Shiro. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shiro today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shiro births was 1922 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shiro. 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 Shiro with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shiro. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
23
~ 1 in 14,902,363 Americans
Peak year
1922
20 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,868
Tracked since 1915
Census
Shiro in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 222 people with the first name Shiro, which placed it at #35,960 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
#35,960
National first-name rank
People counted
222
222 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
76.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shiro
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiro is Asian/Pacific Islander at 76.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and White (6.8%). 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 Shiro 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 Shiro at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander76.1% · 169
- Black or African American8.1% · 18
- White6.8% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 10
- Two or more races4.5% · 10
Popularity
Shiro: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shiro from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 120 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shiro 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 Shiro during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shiros live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shiro
The name Shiro has its origins in Japanese culture, deriving from the Japanese word "shiro," which means "white" or "castle." This name has been in use for centuries, with its earliest recorded instances dating back to the Heian period (794-1185) in Japan.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Shiro was Shiro Hashiba, a renowned Japanese samurai warrior who lived during the Sengoku period (1467-1615). He was a loyal retainer of the powerful Tokugawa clan and played a crucial role in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, which solidified the Tokugawa Shogunate's control over Japan.
In the realm of literature, Shiro Natsume (1867-1916) was a prominent Japanese novelist and short story writer. His works, such as "Kokoro" and "Botchan," explored themes of human nature, social norms, and the complexities of modern Japanese society. Natsume is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Japanese literature.
Another notable figure with the name Shiro was Shiro Ishii (1892-1959), a Japanese microbiologist and lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army. During World War II, he oversaw the infamous Unit 731, a covert biological and chemical warfare research unit that conducted horrific human experiments on prisoners of war and civilians. Ishii's actions were considered war crimes, but he was granted immunity by the United States in exchange for sharing his research data.
In the world of sports, Shiro Hashizume (1910-1995) was a Japanese wrestler who competed in the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics. He won a silver medal in the middleweight category at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, becoming one of the first Japanese athletes to medal in wrestling at the Olympic Games.
Lastly, Shiro Kuramata (1934-1991) was a renowned Japanese furniture and product designer. He is best known for his innovative use of materials like mesh, acrylic, and glass, as well as his playful and minimalist designs. Kuramata's works have been featured in numerous exhibitions and are held in the permanent collections of museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Shiro, which carries a rich cultural heritage and linguistic significance in Japanese tradition.
People
Shiro + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shiro 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
Shiro: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shiro?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shiro 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 14,902,363 US residents.
Is Shiro a common name?
We classify Shiro as "Very Rare". It ranks above 42.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 208 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shiro most popular?
The single biggest year for Shiro was 1922, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shiro is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shiro in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 222 people with the name Shiro, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,960 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 Shiro 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 Shiro?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shiro leans strongly male. 202 people counted with this name were male (91.8%), compared with 18 female bearers (8.2%). 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 Shiro?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiro is Asian/Pacific Islander at 76.1%. The next largest groups are Black (8.1%) and White (6.8%). 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 Shiro most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Shiro in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.1% (169 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 Shiro in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shiro a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shiro 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 Shiro still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shiro 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 Shiro 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 common is the name Shiro?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Shiro at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.