Shaka
#13,587 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Shaka has been given to 839 babies in the U.S. since 1970. In 2025 it ranked #13,587 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1987, with 39 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 83% boys, 17% girls all-time.
Babies named Shaka, 2025
1 in 663,000
Shaka 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 — Shaka over time
In 2025, Shaka 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 Shaka?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 663,000
- 5 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 342,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #13,587
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 459,581 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Shaka 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shaka. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Shakas were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Shaka was born before 1989 — so the typical Shaka is around 36 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1980s
- 26.0% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 23.0%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 697
- People you could plausibly meet
1980s — 26.0% of all recorded uses (181).
Is Shaka 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
- −6,392
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −7,354
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +131
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 1.00×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 12.8%
- Peak was 1987 (39)
- Years since peak
- 38
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 39.5% average annual change
Spellings of Shaka
Shaka is not the most common spelling — Shawn is, with 49.1% against Shaka's 0.11%.
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 Shaka is used
Across 1910–2025, Shaka was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 236,589 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1New York1 in 100,000
- 2California1 in —
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. Shaka has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Shaka around the world
Where Shaka 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 & Wales1996–2023#3,524in 2023
- France2019–2021#4,706in 2021
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.
Shaka by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Shaka
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Shaka
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.