Sheppard

#3,080 in 2025Boys' name

Shepherd

Sheppard has been given to 716 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #3,080 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 40 recorded.

Babies named Sheppard, 2025

1 in 82,900

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sheppard: meaning, origin, and history

Shepherd

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sheppard means

Sheppard means “shepherd”, associated with schepherde.

Origin, language, and formation

Sheppard is used in English.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 716 boys were recorded with the name Sheppard between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 40 in 2025; its best national rank was #1,041 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #4,396 in 2020 to #3,080 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #6,257 in 2015 to #3,080 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 Sheppard?

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

Among all babies, 2025: 1 in 82,900; 40 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only: 1 in 42,700; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025: #3,080; of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size: 57,449 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Sheppard 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 57,449 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sheppard. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sheppards were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sheppard was born before 2010 — so the typical Sheppard is around 15 today.

Median birth year: 2010; About 15 years old
Biggest decade: 2020s; 27.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 57.8%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 554; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2020s — 27.2% of all recorded uses (195).

Is Sheppard 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: +303; Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago: +1,316; Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago: +3,177; Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago: 2.86×; More babies than then
Share of its own peak: 100.0%; Peak was 2025 (40)
Years since peak: Peaking now; At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 25.0% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,041; 1880

Spellings of Sheppard

Sheppard is not the most common spelling — Shepherd is, with 61.0% against Sheppard's 5.6%.

Shepherd61.0%7,785
Shepard29.1%3,714
Sheppard5.6%716
Sherard4.2%537

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 Sheppard is used

Across 1910–2025, Sheppard was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 875,761 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1North Carolina1 in —
2New York1 in —
3Texas1 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. Sheppard has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Sheppard by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: #3,080
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: Up 1,316
Best rank ever: #1,041; 1880
Peak year: 2025; 40 that year
First recorded: 1880
Last recorded: 2025
All-time count: 716
Count in 2025: 40

Names similar to Sheppard

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

Shephard Sherard Shepard Sherrard Sheamus Sheridan Shernard Sherrell Shervin Sherif Sheikh Gerrard Harvard Shellie Sherrill Sherron Shepherd Shemuel Sherwin Ballard Shehbaaz Shenard Shedrick Shermon

Sibling names for Sheppard

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

Leonor Keren Karleigh Eloisa Nila Kamilah Denisse Anabelle

For a brother

Evans Hamilton Caesar Leander Henri Lucio Tobin Gray

Explore around Sheppard

Top names of 2025, Sheppard's peak year The 2020s in full Other names that peaked in 1880 Boys' names starting with S