Shigeo

Boys' name

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Shigeo has been given to 427 babies in the U.S. since 1912. 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 1923, with 38 recorded.

Babies named Shigeo, 1936

1 in 346,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shigeo: meaning, origin, and history

Japanese name; meaning depends on kanji

Japanese

What Shigeo means

Shigeo is documented with more than one possible Japanese character combination. The Latin-letter spelling records a pronunciation; it does not specify one unique kanji spelling or one universal meaning.

Possible character meanings include lush, luxuriant, layers, folds, hero, manly, male, man.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Shigeo is used in Japanese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ɕi.ɡe̞.o̞/ for Shigeo.

Origin, language, and formation

Shigeo is used in English and Portuguese. Its origins include Japanese.

Shigeo comes through Japanese しげお.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 427 boys were recorded with the name Shigeo between 1912 and 1936. Its highest annual count was 38 in 1923; its best national rank was #1,094 in 1916.

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 Shigeo?

Shigeo had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1936, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1936: 1 in 346,000; 6 of 2,077,561 births
Among boys only: 1 in 173,000; <0.01% of boys
Rank, 1936: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 240,010 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Shigeo 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 1936 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 240,010 children born in 1936 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shigeo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shigeos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shigeo was born before 1922 — so the typical Shigeo is around 103 today.

Median birth year: 1922; About 103 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 55.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 100.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 0; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 55.5% of all recorded uses (237).

Is Shigeo 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 1923 (38)
Years since peak: 102; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 41.8% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,094; 1916

Spellings of Shigeo

Shigeo is not the most common spelling — Shilo is, with 29.9% against Shigeo's 10.0%.

Shilo29.9%1,270
Saige27.2%1,156
Hideo18.9%805
Shigeru13.9%591
Shigeo10.0%427

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 Shigeo is used

Across 1910–2025, Shigeo was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 2,326 boys, against 1 in 53,410 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in 100,000).

143 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1Hawaii1 in 2,326
2California1 in 100,000

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

Shigeo by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,094; 1916
Peak year: 1923; 38 that year
First recorded: 1912
Last recorded: 1936
All-time count: 427
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Shigeo

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

Shiven Shivan Shivay Shiva Shivin Shine Shivaay Shivaan Shivam Shimshon Shilo Shion Shirl Shiah Shigeru Shizuo Shimmy Shiraz Shimon Shivansh Shiro Shihab Shivang Shiloh

Sibling names for Shigeo

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

Filomena Novella Aletha Dorcas Vernice Albertha Bethel Rosina

For a brother

Elwin Rubin Bertram Alvis Eldridge Trinidad Hobert Harland

Explore around Shigeo

Top names of 1923, Shigeo's peak year The 1920s in full Other names that peaked in 1916 Boys' names starting with S