Meaning not yet researched.
Shay: US girls given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 184 in 2025. Its best rank was #894 in 1971.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #894 in 1971; #1,227 in 2025. About 70% of babies named Shay in 2025 were girls.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#1,227 for US girls in 2025. Its best year was 1971, at #894.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Shay: US girls and boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 184 girls in 2025. Peak: #894 in 1971 · most girls in one year: 301 (2022).
In 2025, 184 US girls were named Shay, making it the 1,227th most common girls’ name of the year, down 68 places from #1,159 in 2024. That is 24 fewer than the 208 girls named Shay in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #894, reached in 1971. The most girls given the name in a single year was 301, in 2022. For comparison, it was #1,379 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
In 2025, 77 US boys were named Shay, making it the 1,989th most common boys’ name of the year, down 283 places from #1,706 in 2024. That is 21 fewer than the 98 boys named Shay in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #837, reached in 1991. That year also had the most boys given the name: 154. For comparison, it was #2,205 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Shay in 74 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1932 with 5 babies. In all, 13,251 US babies have been given the name, 62% of them girls and 38% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1990s, with 2,595 babies named Shay.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 2,243 US girls were named Shay; the busiest of those years was 2022, with 301. In 2025 that was about 1 in 8,735 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Shay ranked highest in Pennsylvania in 2025, at #643 for girls there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Shae (7,694 babies since 1880), Shai (4,340 babies since 1880), Shaye (2,862 babies since 1880) and Shaya (2,850 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Sha, Shah and Shaia are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Sha (766), Shah (440), Shaia (114), Shaiya (54), Shao (7), Shayah (6).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Shay in the open dataset we use.
Shay is listed as a nickname for Shaina, Sharon.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US girls. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five girls got the name, so 40 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 16 | #643 | #817 |
| Minnesota | 7 | #721 | #605 |
| Massachusetts | 7 | #753 | #946 |
| Ohio | 10 | #953 | — |
| New Jersey | 7 | #1,020 | #1,048 |
| Missouri | 5 | #1,064 | #1,102 |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,103 | #849 |
| New York | 13 | #1,149 | #1,595 |
| California | 21 | #1,223 | #1,165 |
| Florida | 10 | #1,420 | #1,457 |
| Texas | 11 | #2,021 | — |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 184 | #1,227 | 77 | #1,989 |
| 2024 | 208 | #1,159 | 98 | #1,706 |
| 2023 | 255 | #1,000 | 90 | #1,802 |
| 2022 | 301 | #914 | 102 | #1,693 |
| 2021 | 300 | #903 | 109 | #1,589 |
| 2020 | 277 | #934 | 87 | #1,763 |
| 2019 | 199 | #1,184 | 74 | #1,996 |
| 2018 | 168 | #1,344 | 87 | #1,774 |
| 2017 | 180 | #1,307 | 72 | #1,999 |
| 2016 | 171 | #1,378 | 88 | #1,761 |
| 2015 | 172 | #1,379 | 62 | #2,205 |
| 2014 | 144 | #1,525 | 53 | #2,424 |
| 2013 | 115 | #1,791 | 53 | #2,395 |
| 2012 | 84 | #2,261 | 61 | #2,181 |
| 2011 | 102 | #1,951 | 76 | #1,860 |
| 2010 | 112 | #1,828 | 68 | #2,031 |
| 2009 | 109 | #1,930 | 86 | #1,772 |
| 2008 | 148 | #1,559 | 75 | #1,929 |
| 2007 | 127 | #1,721 | 88 | #1,719 |
| 2006 | 122 | #1,721 | 92 | #1,594 |
| 2005 | 123 | #1,638 | 90 | #1,567 |
| 2004 | 141 | #1,451 | 92 | #1,482 |
| 2003 | 131 | #1,493 | 101 | #1,355 |
| 2002 | 140 | #1,384 | 75 | #1,617 |
| 2001 | 125 | #1,504 | 61 | #1,837 |
| 2000 | 157 | #1,252 | 93 | #1,369 |
| 1999 | 167 | #1,166 | 84 | #1,407 |
| 1998 | 148 | #1,233 | 90 | #1,336 |
| 1997 | 157 | #1,173 | 101 | #1,189 |
| 1996 | 158 | #1,154 | 116 | #1,057 |
| 1995 | 161 | #1,106 | 129 | #981 |
| 1994 | 157 | #1,140 | 130 | #970 |
| 1993 | 127 | #1,324 | 115 | #1,032 |
| 1992 | 129 | #1,310 | 109 | #1,054 |
| 1991 | 117 | #1,380 | 154 | #837 |
| 1990 | 128 | #1,277 | 118 | #962 |
| 1989 | 124 | #1,273 | 123 | #921 |
| 1988 | 106 | #1,349 | 128 | #842 |
| 1987 | 114 | #1,246 | 106 | #919 |
| 1986 | 92 | #1,402 | 64 | #1,197 |
| 1985 | 93 | #1,392 | 73 | #1,091 |
| 1984 | 97 | #1,292 | 67 | #1,109 |
| 1983 | 92 | #1,316 | 57 | #1,217 |
| 1982 | 99 | #1,291 | 62 | #1,178 |
| 1981 | 116 | #1,157 | 79 | #1,028 |
| 1980 | 134 | #1,062 | 87 | #966 |
| 1979 | 89 | #1,391 | 86 | #959 |
| 1978 | 107 | #1,181 | 71 | #1,038 |
| 1977 | 65 | #1,633 | 77 | #979 |
| 1976 | 84 | #1,306 | 72 | #987 |
| 1975 | 98 | #1,190 | 74 | #959 |
| 1974 | 130 | #958 | 78 | #922 |
| 1973 | 115 | #1,025 | 79 | #903 |
| 1972 | 116 | #1,015 | 65 | #1,005 |
| 1971 | 149 | #894 | 55 | #1,107 |
| 1970 | 133 | #958 | 69 | #976 |
| 1969 | 53 | #1,663 | 38 | #1,300 |
| 1968 | 34 | #2,084 | 32 | #1,387 |
| 1967 | 28 | #2,313 | 11 | #2,586 |
| 1966 | 22 | #2,649 | 18 | #1,880 |
| 1965 | 33 | #2,057 | 8 | #3,211 |
| 1964 | 18 | #3,090 | 14 | #2,297 |
| 1963 | 27 | #2,350 | 14 | #2,284 |
| 1962 | 29 | #2,251 | 13 | #2,348 |
| 1961 | 20 | #2,818 | 16 | #2,136 |
| 1960 | 11 | #4,129 | 12 | #2,521 |
| 1959 | 9 | #4,575 | 5 | #4,493 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,318 | — | — |
| 1957 | 15 | #3,128 | 5 | #4,473 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,853 | — | — |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,570 | — | — |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,650 | 5 | #4,292 |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,962 | — | — |
| 1932 | — | — | 5 | #4,216 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).