Shep

#4,233 in 2025Boys' name

Diminutive of Shepherd or Sheppard

Shep has been given to 235 babies in the U.S. since 1884. In 2025 it ranked #4,233 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 30 recorded.

Babies named Shep, 2025

1 in 133,000

Shep over time, 1880–2025

Boys

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shep: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Shepherd or Sheppard

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shep means

Shep is a diminutive of Shepherd or Sheppard.

Origin, language, and formation

Shep is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Shepherd and Sheppard.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Shep is pronounced /ʃɛp/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 235 boys were recorded with the name Shep between 1884 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 30 in 2023; its best national rank was #956 in 1884.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #5,653 in 2020 to #4,233 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #8,618 in 2015 to #4,233 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Shep?

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

Among all babies, 2025: 1 in 133,000; 25 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only: 1 in 68,300; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025: #4,233; of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size: 91,917 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Shep 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 91,917 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shep. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sheps were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shep was born before 2021 — so the typical Shep is around 4 today.

Median birth year: 2021; About 4 years old
Biggest decade: 2020s; 57.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 88.5%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 208; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2020s — 57.9% of all recorded uses (136).

Is Shep 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: −62; Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago: +1,420; Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago: +4,385; Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago: 2.78×; More babies than then
Share of its own peak: 83.3%; Peak was 2023 (30)
Years since peak: 2; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 31.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #956; 1884

Spellings of Shep

Shep is not the most common spelling — Asher is, with 52.7% against Shep's 0.11%.

Asher52.7%111,227
Theo17.0%35,830
Shea4.0%8,537
Chet2.9%6,180
Syed2.9%6,032
Shon2.5%5,172
Shay2.4%5,024
Shad2.3%4,831

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 Shep is used

Across 1910–2025, Shep was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 745,826 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Louisiana1 in —
2Texas1 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. Shep has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shep around the world

Where Shep 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.

Canada
2024–2024
#2,855
in 2024

Popularity data from Statistics Canada. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Shep by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: #4,233
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: Up 1,420
Best rank ever: #956; 1884
Peak year: 2023; 30 that year
First recorded: 1884
Last recorded: 2025
All-time count: 235
Count in 2025: 25

Names similar to Shep

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

Sher Shem Shey Sheikh Sherif Shed Shervin Shean Shen Sheri Shell Shemuel Sheryl Sherri Sheamus Sheron Shehzad Shelia Shea Sherley Sherod Shelden Sheila Sheik

Sibling names for Shep

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

For a sister

Karleigh Leonor Keren Kendyl Anabel Leigha Adelle Annabell

For a brother

Evans Hamilton Caesar Tobin Jerimiah Jorden Henri Gavyn

Explore around Shep

Top names of 2023, Shep's peak year The 2020s in full Other names that peaked in 1884 Boys' names starting with S