Meaning not yet researched.
Shepherd: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 1,408 in 2025. Its best rank was #246 in 2025.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Its highest rank in 146 years of records is this year’s. About 99% of babies named Shepherd in 2025 were boys.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#246 for US boys in 2025, its highest rank in 146 years of records.
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.
Shepherd: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 1,408 boys in 2025. Peak: #246 in 2025 · most boys in one year: 1,408 (2025).
In 2025, 1,408 US boys were named Shepherd, making it the 246th most common boys’ name of the year, up 65 places from #311 in 2024. That is 309 more than the 1,099 boys named Shepherd in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #246, reached in this year, 2025. That year also had the most boys given the name: 1,408. For comparison, it was #1,109 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Shepherd in 89 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1886 with 5 babies. In all, 7,815 US babies have been given the name, 0.4% of them girls and 99.6% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2020s, with 4,961 babies named Shepherd.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 6,267 US boys were named Shepherd; the busiest of those years was 2025, with 1,408. In 2025 that was about 1 in 1,213 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Shepherd ranked highest in Tennessee in 2025, at #92 for boys there. It was in the top 100 in 2 states (counting DC). Rarer spellings such as Shephard 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.
No related spellings pass our data threshold.
Rare spellings summarised here: Shephard (84).
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 Shepherd in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 12 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 95 | #92 | #667 |
| Oklahoma | 46 | #95 | — |
| Kentucky | 54 | #101 | — |
| Arkansas | 32 | #108 | — |
| Alabama | 48 | #109 | #442 |
| North Carolina | 92 | #135 | #975 |
| Georgia | 88 | #137 | #732 |
| South Carolina | 39 | #149 | — |
| Mississippi | 22 | #150 | #613 |
| Missouri | 44 | #160 | — |
| Indiana | 51 | #168 | — |
| Kansas | 22 | #188 | — |
| Alaska | 5 | #192 | — |
| Idaho | 14 | #193 | — |
| Virginia | 47 | #194 | #777 |
| West Virginia | 10 | #195 | — |
| Texas | 199 | #195 | #1,031 |
| Nebraska | 13 | #206 | — |
| South Dakota | 7 | #218 | — |
| Louisiana | 23 | #230 | — |
| Maine | 6 | #230 | — |
| Iowa | 17 | #242 | — |
| Colorado | 27 | #248 | — |
| Ohio | 48 | #264 | #1,190 |
| Montana | 5 | #287 | — |
| Michigan | 34 | #292 | — |
| Wisconsin | 20 | #297 | — |
| Washington | 25 | #306 | #832 |
| Oregon | 14 | #309 | #489 |
| Pennsylvania | 36 | #316 | — |
| Minnesota | 17 | #354 | — |
| Florida | 47 | #420 | #1,365 |
| Maryland | 12 | #433 | — |
| Utah | 11 | #436 | — |
| Arizona | 16 | #459 | — |
| Illinois | 22 | #483 | — |
| California | 55 | #557 | #1,254 |
| New Jersey | 8 | #821 | — |
| New York | 9 | #1,278 | — |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,785 | 1,408 | #246 |
| 2024 | 10 | #10,164 | 1,099 | #311 |
| 2023 | — | — | 789 | #405 |
| 2022 | 7 | #13,383 | 619 | #494 |
| 2021 | — | — | 558 | #528 |
| 2020 | — | — | 463 | #595 |
| 2019 | — | — | 434 | #625 |
| 2018 | — | — | 339 | #716 |
| 2017 | — | — | 293 | #791 |
| 2016 | — | — | 265 | #848 |
| 2015 | — | — | 174 | #1,109 |
| 2014 | — | — | 164 | #1,157 |
| 2013 | — | — | 93 | #1,643 |
| 2012 | — | — | 102 | #1,560 |
| 2011 | 5 | #19,156 | 103 | #1,541 |
| 2010 | — | — | 102 | #1,564 |
| 2009 | — | — | 70 | #2,003 |
| 2008 | — | — | 65 | #2,118 |
| 2007 | — | — | 34 | #3,297 |
| 2006 | — | — | 39 | #2,926 |
| 2005 | — | — | 32 | #3,227 |
| 2004 | — | — | 9 | #8,059 |
| 2003 | — | — | 17 | #4,780 |
| 2002 | — | — | 9 | #7,542 |
| 2001 | — | — | 6 | #10,360 |
| 2000 | — | — | 8 | #8,097 |
| 1999 | — | — | 8 | #7,760 |
| 1998 | — | — | 12 | #5,412 |
| 1997 | — | — | 9 | #6,531 |
| 1996 | — | — | 7 | #7,841 |
| 1995 | — | — | 10 | #5,845 |
| 1994 | — | — | 5 | #10,028 |
| 1990 | — | — | 6 | #7,967 |
| 1989 | — | — | 8 | #6,132 |
| 1982 | — | — | 7 | #5,535 |
| 1979 | — | — | 5 | #6,932 |
| 1978 | — | — | 5 | #6,628 |
| 1977 | — | — | 7 | #5,038 |
| 1975 | — | — | 9 | #3,901 |
| 1971 | — | — | 9 | #3,615 |
| 1970 | — | — | 13 | #2,720 |
| 1969 | — | — | 7 | #3,888 |
| 1968 | — | — | 8 | #3,327 |
| 1966 | — | — | 8 | #3,205 |
| 1965 | — | — | 10 | #2,750 |
| 1964 | — | — | 6 | #3,973 |
| 1963 | — | — | 5 | #4,543 |
| 1961 | — | — | 10 | #2,876 |
| 1960 | — | — | 6 | #3,990 |
| 1959 | — | — | 6 | #3,932 |
| 1958 | — | — | 6 | #3,880 |
| 1956 | — | — | 10 | #2,774 |
| 1955 | — | — | 9 | #2,946 |
| 1954 | — | — | 10 | #2,714 |
| 1953 | — | — | 5 | #4,270 |
| 1952 | — | — | 9 | #2,848 |
| 1949 | — | — | 10 | #2,591 |
| 1948 | — | — | 6 | #3,614 |
| 1947 | — | — | 5 | #4,190 |
| 1946 | — | — | 15 | #1,941 |
| 1945 | — | — | 6 | #3,285 |
| 1944 | — | — | 7 | #3,072 |
| 1943 | — | — | 5 | #3,974 |
| 1941 | — | — | 5 | #3,940 |
| 1940 | — | — | 5 | #3,870 |
| 1938 | — | — | 6 | #3,488 |
| 1936 | — | — | 5 | #3,983 |
| 1932 | — | — | 6 | #3,719 |
| 1930 | — | — | 8 | #3,256 |
| 1929 | — | — | 9 | #2,943 |
| 1927 | — | — | 9 | #3,116 |
| 1926 | — | — | 11 | #2,709 |
| 1925 | — | — | 10 | #2,907 |
| 1924 | — | — | 7 | #3,813 |
| 1923 | — | — | 10 | #2,912 |
| 1922 | — | — | 8 | #3,492 |
| 1921 | — | — | 15 | #2,251 |
| 1920 | — | — | 11 | #2,737 |
| 1919 | — | — | 10 | #2,842 |
| 1918 | — | — | 11 | #2,679 |
| 1917 | — | — | 8 | #3,171 |
| 1916 | — | — | 9 | #2,901 |
| 1915 | — | — | 6 | #3,771 |
| 1914 | — | — | 7 | #2,871 |
| 1913 | — | — | 5 | #3,198 |
| 1912 | — | — | 5 | #2,854 |
| 1888 | — | — | 5 | #1,163 |
| 1887 | — | — | 6 | #906 |
| 1886 | — | — | 5 | #1,087 |
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).