Shyra
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "small" or "little one".
Name Census estimates that about 821 living Americans carry the first name Shyra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shyra today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shyra births was 1994 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shyra. 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 Shyra with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
821
~ 1 in 417,484 Americans
Peak year
1994
47 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,142
Tracked since 1962
Census
Shyra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 695 people with the first name Shyra, which placed it at #16,280 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
#16,280
National first-name rank
People counted
695
695 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shyra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shyra is Black at 51.1%. The next largest groups are White (27.2%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Shyra 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 Shyra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.1% · 355
- White27.2% · 189
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 49
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.1% · 49
- Two or more races5.0% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.6% · 18
Popularity
Shyra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shyra from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 216 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
Shyra 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 Shyra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shyras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Shyra, while New York, Florida, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shyra
The given name Shyra is believed to originate from the Sanskrit language, which was the classical language of ancient India and the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The name likely emerged during the Vedic period, which spanned from around 1500 BCE to 500 BCE.
Shyra is thought to be derived from the Sanskrit word "shyama," which means "dark-colored" or "black." This could suggest that the name was initially used to describe someone with a darker complexion or perhaps someone with dark hair or eyes.
While there are no definitive historical references or ancient texts that explicitly mention the name Shyra, some scholars believe it may have been used as a descriptive name or epithet in ancient Indian literature and religious texts.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Shyra can be found in the writings of the 16th-century Mughal historian, Abul Fazl, who documented the names of various individuals during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. However, details about the specific individual named Shyra are scarce.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals who bore the name Shyra. One such person was Shyra Begum (1615-1647), a Mughal princess and the daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan, who commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal.
Another historical figure was Shyra Devi (1856-1928), an Indian freedom fighter and social reformer who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement against British rule.
In the realm of literature, Shyra Chatterjee (1932-1988) was a celebrated Bengali author and poet known for her contributions to modern Bengali literature.
Shyra Khastgir (1914-2003) was an Indian physicist and educator who made significant contributions to the field of nuclear physics and served as the Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Calcutta.
Lastly, Shyra Roy Chowdhury (1937-2015) was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who specialized in the Manipuri dance form and was awarded the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for her contributions to the performing arts.
People
Shyra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shyra 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
Shyra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shyra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 821 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shyra 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 417,484 US residents.
Is Shyra a common name?
We classify Shyra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 857 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shyra most popular?
The single biggest year for Shyra was 1994, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shyra is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shyra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 695 people with the name Shyra, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,280 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 Shyra 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 Shyra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shyra appears almost entirely female. Of the 694 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Shyra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shyra is Black at 51.1%. The next largest groups are White (27.2%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Shyra most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shyra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.1% (355 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 Shyra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shyra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shyra 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 Shyra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shyra 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 Shyra 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 Shyra?
Want to know how many Americans are named Shyra? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.