Name Awesome

Shad

#8,795 in 2025Boys' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Shad has been given to 4,831 babies in the U.S. since 1940. In 2025 it ranked #8,795 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1971, with 406 recorded.

Babies named Shad, 2025

1 in 368,000

Shad over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shad: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shad means

Shad has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: distinct naming traditions.

The naming story behind Shad

One of the source’s documented entries for Shad records a meaning of happy.

A separate documented entry treats Shad as a variant of Chad. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,831 boys were recorded with the name Shad between 1940 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 406 in 1971; its best national rank was #402 in 1972.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #7,412 in 2020 to #8,795 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,057 in 2015 to #8,795 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Shad?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 368,000
9 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 190,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#8,795
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
255,323 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shad sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 255,323 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shad. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shads were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shad was born before 1976 — so the typical Shad is around 49 today.

Median birth year
1976
About 49 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
53.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
4,826
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 53.4% of all recorded uses (2,582).

Is Shad rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,383
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,738
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.35×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
2.2%
Peak was 1971 (406)
Years since peak
54
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
34.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#402
1972

Spellings of Shad

Shad is not the most common spelling — Sean is, with 25.6% against Shad's 0.29%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Shad is used

Across 1910–2025, Shad was most concentrated in Utah — about 1 in 5,000 boys, against 1 in 56,414 across all states with data. It was least common in North Carolina (1 in —).

020 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Utah1 in 5,000
  2. 2Montana1 in 12,500
  3. 3Idaho1 in 14,286
  4. 4Nebraska1 in 16,667
  5. 5Washington1 in 20,000
  6. 6Iowa1 in 25,000
  7. 7Colorado1 in 33,333
  8. 8Indiana1 in 33,333

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Shad has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shad around the world

Where Shad ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2000–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • France
    1997–2024
    #5,190
    in 2024
  • Canada
    1993–2019
    #2,943
    in 2019
  • South Australia
    1971–1982
    #424
    in 1982

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Shad by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#8,795
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,383
Best rank ever
#402
1972
Peak year
1971
406 that year
First recorded
1940
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,831
Count in 2025
9

Names similar to Shad

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ShayShaiShaeShawShaanShayaShamarThadShanSharifShainShalomShadeShayanShayneShahShamusShantShakurShaulShadiShamirShakaShaye

Names with a curve like Shad

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Shad, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JameyKenyattaDemondKenyaTorreyJammieDarrickJasenNakiaJeromyLevarTorrance

Sibling names for Shad

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Shad

Top names of 1971, Shad's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1972Boys' names starting with S