Shadow
#6,088 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Shadow has been given to 1,104 babies in the U.S. since 1987. In 2025 it ranked #6,088 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1993, with 36 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 56% boys, 44% girls all-time.
Babies named Shadow, 2025
1 in 221,000
Shadow over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Shadow over time
In 2025, Shadow went to 0% girls and 100% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Shadow?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 221,000
- 15 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 114,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #6,088
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 153,194 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Shadow sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 153,194 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shadow. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Shadows were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Shadow was born before 2000 — so the typical Shadow is around 25 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1990s
- 42.1% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 47.8%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 613
- People you could plausibly meet
1990s — 42.1% of all recorded uses (258).
Is Shadow 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
- +327
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- +144
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +1,345
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 1.36×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 41.7%
- Peak was 1993 (36)
- Years since peak
- 32
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 50.7% average annual change
Spellings of Shadow
Shadow is not the most common spelling — Shad is, with 25.9% against Shadow's 3.3%.
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 Shadow is used — girls
Across 1910–2025, Shadow was most concentrated in Texas — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 2,046,820 across all states with data.
Most concentrated
- 1Texas1 in —
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Shadow has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Shadow around the world
Where Shadow 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.
- Canada1991–2023#2,436in 2023
Popularity data from Statistics Canada. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Shadow by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Shadow
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Shadow
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.