Highest ever

Shepard

Meaning not yet researched.

2025 rank
#892
268 boys
2015
#1,459
rank
1950
#3,279
rank

Shepard: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 268 in 2025. Its best rank was #892 in 2025.

US births per year · SSA card applications

Its highest rank in 146 years of records is this year’s. Every baby recorded as Shepard in 2025 was a boy.

Baby name · US data 1880–2025

#892 for US boys in 2025, its highest rank in 146 years of records.

Babies in 2025
268
Since 1880
3,719
Years on record
96

Babies named Shepard, every year since 1880

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.

Boys

Shepard: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 268 boys in 2025. Peak: #892 in 2025 · most boys in one year: 268 (2025).

About the name Shepard

In 2025, 268 US boys were named Shepard, making it the 892nd most common boys’ name of the year, up 53 places from #945 in 2024. That is 24 more than the 244 boys named Shepard in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #892, reached in this year, 2025. That year also had the most boys given the name: 268. For comparison, it was #1,459 in 2015 and #3,279 in 1950.

Social Security card records list Shepard in 96 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1912 with 9 babies. In all, 3,719 US babies have been given the name, 0.1% of them girls and 99.8% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2020s, with 1,479 babies named Shepard.

Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 2,314 US boys were named Shepard; the busiest of those years was 2025, with 268. In 2025 that was about 1 in 6,373 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.

Among the states, Shepard ranked highest in Oklahoma in 2025, at #326 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Rarer spellings such as Sheppard and Sheperd are summarised on this page.

Meaning

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.

Related spellings

No related spellings pass our data threshold.

Rare spellings summarised here: Sheppard (716), Sheperd (37).

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.

Nicknames

No nicknames listed for Shepard in the open dataset we use.

Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).

Shepard by state, 2025

US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 29 are not listed.

StateBirths 2025Rank 2025Rank 2015
Oklahoma15#326—
Alabama16#357#693
Nevada5#587—
South Carolina8#600—
Mississippi5#605—
Tennessee11#663#586
Missouri8#703—
Colorado7#747—
Louisiana6#756—
North Carolina12#762—
Ohio11#792—
Kentucky5#801—
Pennsylvania10#836—
Georgia11#844—
Texas28#912#1,435
Minnesota5#915—
Virginia7#952—
Washington6#980#927
Florida14#1,000#1,174
Illinois6#1,257—
California14#1,352#1,617
New York7#1,545—

Rank by year

Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.

CSV
YearGirlsGirls rankBoysBoys rank
2025——268#892
2024——244#945
2023——238#950
2022——253#918
2021——233#965
2020——243#921
2019——202#1,032
2018——215#967
2017——228#926
2016——190#1,044
2015——116#1,459
2014——80#1,854
20135#18,87959#2,221
2012——65#2,101
2011——57#2,282
2010——64#2,117
2009——67#2,071
2008——60#2,232
2007——31#3,497
2006——44#2,690
2005——31#3,307
2004——20#4,388
2003——37#2,720
2002——15#5,098
2001——15#5,095
2000——6#10,158
1999——5#11,347
1998——7#8,317
1997——5#10,577
1996——6#8,850
1995——5#10,094
1994——5#10,027
1990——5#9,302
1989——5#9,029
1985——7#5,677
1983——6#6,110
1982——5#7,216
1981——7#5,407
1979——6#5,945
1977——8#4,521
1976——8#4,359
1975——5#6,207
1973——5#5,767
1972——6#4,907
1970——5#5,337
1969——6#4,337
1966——5#4,450
1965——9#2,955
1964——14#2,298
1962——8#3,271
1961——12#2,521
1960——9#3,043
1959——7#3,563
1958——12#2,487
1957——10#2,802
1956——8#3,170
1955——10#2,731
1954——7#3,419
1953——13#2,272
1952——8#3,071
1951——12#2,356
1950——7#3,279
1949——8#2,987
1948——8#2,977
1947——15#2,061
1946——6#3,480
1945——6#3,284
1944——8#2,836
1943——10#2,539
1942——5#3,972
1941——11#2,319
1940——19#1,618
1939——8#2,795
1938——10#2,464
1937——6#3,482
1936——9#2,600
1934——12#2,242
1932——7#3,328
1931——17#1,834
1930——14#2,159
1929——8#3,216
1928——9#3,049
1927——12#2,510
1926——11#2,708
1925——13#2,416
1924——10#2,996
1923——17#2,011
1922——5#4,862
1921——14#2,361
1920——15#2,211
1919——13#2,373
1918——15#2,148
1917——15#2,078
1915——12#2,287
1914——8#2,615
1912——9#1,867

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).