Name Awesome

Shaneka

Girls' name

Variant of Shanika

Shaneka has been given to 2,686 babies in the U.S. since 1971. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1983, with 164 recorded.

Babies named Shaneka, 2008

1 in 786,000

Shaneka over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shaneka: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Shanika

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shaneka means

Shaneka is a variant of Shanika.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Shaneka is used in African American (Modern).

Another recorded pronunciation is /ʃə.ˈni.kə/ for Shaneka.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Shanika.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,686 girls were recorded with the name Shaneka between 1971 and 2008. Its highest annual count was 164 in 1983; its best national rank was #916 in 1983.

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 Shaneka?

Shaneka had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2008, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2008
1 in 786,000
5 of 3,930,727 births
Among girls only
1 in 378,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2008
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
544,916 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shaneka sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2008 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 544,916 children born in 2008 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shaneka. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shanekas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shaneka was born before 1986 — so the typical Shaneka is around 39 today.

Median birth year
1986
About 39 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
52.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
60.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,686
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 52.0% of all recorded uses (1,398).

Is Shaneka 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
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1983 (164)
Years since peak
42
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#916
1983

Spellings of Shaneka

Shaneka is not the most common spelling — Shana is, with 18.6% against Shaneka's 1.7%.

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 Shaneka is used

Across 1910–2025, Shaneka was most concentrated in South Carolina — about 1 in 16,667 girls, against 1 in 64,300 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

06 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1South Carolina1 in 16,667
  2. 2Florida1 in 20,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 20,000
  4. 4Mississippi1 in 25,000
  5. 5North Carolina1 in 25,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 33,333
  7. 7Louisiana1 in 33,333
  8. 8Maryland1 in 33,333

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. Shaneka has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shaneka around the world

Where Shaneka 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
    2002–2007
    #4,294
    in 2007
  • South Australia
    1996–1996
    #712
    in 1996

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Shaneka by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#916
1983
Peak year
1983
164 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2008
All-time count
2,686
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shaneka

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

ShamekaSharekaShameekaShaneekaShaindyShanayaShaylynShaelynShaniahShaylinShantalShamiraShanellShamiekaShaniekaShanelShatekaShayneShaniyahShaniyaShaylynnShailaShamyaShaylee

Names with a curve like Shaneka

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

TieshaNatashiaAlishiaEbonieLaquishaMarkitaLatoriaTaneishaKasiTenishaShaquitaMeghann

Sibling names for Shaneka

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 Shaneka

Top names of 1983, Shaneka's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1983Girls' names starting with S