Shire
#16,911 in 2025UnisexGirls' nameBoys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Shire has been given to 43 babies in the U.S. since 1964. In 2025 it ranked #16,911 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1992, with 6 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 86% girls, 14% boys all-time.
Babies named Shire, 2025
1 in 663,000
Shire 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.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 — Shire over time
In 2025, Shire went to 100% girls and 0% 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 Shire?
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 girls only
- 1 in 321,000
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #16,911
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 459,581 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Shire 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 Shire. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Shires were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Shire was born before 2018 — so the typical Shire is around 7 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2020s
- 40.5% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 70.3%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 37
- People you could plausibly meet
2020s — 40.5% of all recorded uses (15).
Is Shire 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
- +416
- Places climbed
- 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
- 83.3%
- Peak was 1992 (6)
- Years since peak
- 33
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Very steady
- 0% average annual change
Spellings of Shire
Shire is not the most common spelling — Shirley is, with 77.1% against Shire's <0.01%.
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.
Shire by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Shire
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Shire
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.