Shneur
An Aramaic name meaning "two lights" or "light that shines".
Name Census estimates that about 607 living Americans carry the first name Shneur. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shneur today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shneur births was 2020 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shneur. 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 Shneur with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
607
~ 1 in 564,669 Americans
Peak year
2020
32 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,841
Tracked since 1977
Census
Shneur in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 395 people with the first name Shneur, which placed it at #24,413 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
#24,413
National first-name rank
People counted
395
395 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
96.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shneur
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shneur is White at 96.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.3%) and Hispanic (1.0%). 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 Shneur 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 Shneur at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White96.5% · 381
- Two or more races1.3% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 3
- Black or African American0.5% · 2
Popularity
Shneur: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shneur 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 204 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Shneur remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shneur 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 Shneur during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shneurs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shneur
The name Shneur is of Hebrew origin and has its roots in the Jewish culture and tradition. It is derived from the Hebrew word "Shnayim," which means "two" or "second," and "Or," meaning "light." The combined meaning suggests "second light" or "another light."
This name gained prominence in the 18th century, particularly within the Hasidic Jewish movement. One of the most notable figures associated with this name is Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. He was also known as the Alter Rebbe (the "Old Rabbi") and the Baal HaTanya, after his seminal work, the Tanya.
The name Shneur is also mentioned in the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. Specifically, it appears in the Tractate Bava Batra, where it refers to a person named Shneur ben Sheket, a scribe who lived during the Second Temple period.
Another historical figure bearing this name was Rabbi Shneur Zalman Aharon (1866-1920), the fifth Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty. He is also known as the Rashab, an acronym for Rabbi Shneur Zalman.
In the 19th century, there was a prominent Jewish author and thinker named Shneur Zalman Bornstein (1823-1897), who wrote extensively on Jewish law and philosophy.
Additionally, Shneur Kotler (1918-1982) was a renowned Rosh Yeshiva (head of a Jewish educational institution) and a leader of the Lithuanian branch of Orthodox Judaism in the United States.
While the name Shneur has its roots in the Jewish tradition, it has also been adopted by individuals from other cultures and religions over time, though its usage remains relatively rare outside of the Jewish community.
People
Shneur + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shneur 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
Shneur: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shneur?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 607 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shneur 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 564,669 US residents.
Is Shneur a common name?
We classify Shneur as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 616 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shneur most popular?
The single biggest year for Shneur was 2020, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shneur is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shneur in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 395 people with the name Shneur, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,413 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 Shneur 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 Shneur?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shneur leans strongly male. 390 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Shneur?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shneur is White at 96.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.3%) and Hispanic (1.0%). 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 Shneur most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shneur in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.5% (381 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 Shneur in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shneur a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shneur 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 Shneur still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shneur 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 Shneur 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 Shneur as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Shneur on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.