Shachar
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "dawn" or "daybreak".
Name Census estimates that about 12 living Americans carry the first name Shachar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shachar today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shachar births was 1982 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shachar. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shachar. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
12
~ 1 in 28,562,862 Americans
Peak year
1982
6 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
1995 SSA rank
#8,704
Tracked since 1982
Census
Shachar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 204 people with the first name Shachar, which placed it at #37,948 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#37,948
National first-name rank
People counted
204
204 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shachar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shachar is White at 91.2%. The next largest groups are Black (3.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shachar described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shachar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.2% · 186
- Black or African American3.4% · 7
- Two or more races2.5% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 3
Popularity
Shachar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shachar from the 1980s through to the 1990s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 6 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shachar by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shachar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shachar
The name Shachar finds its origins in the Hebrew language and the Middle Eastern region. It is derived from the Hebrew word "shachar," which means "dawn" or "morning." The name is predominantly associated with the Jewish faith and culture.
Shachar is believed to have been in use as a given name since ancient times in the region of the Levant, which includes modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and parts of Syria and Jordan. The earliest known reference to the name appears in the Hebrew Bible, where it is mentioned as a descriptive term for the morning light or the first rays of dawn.
In the Book of Genesis, one of the sons of Reuben, a son of Jacob, is referred to as "Shachar." This biblical figure is likely one of the earliest recorded individuals to bear the name Shachar. Additionally, in the Book of Job, the name is used in a poetic verse to describe the dawn: "Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn (Shachar) to know its place?"
Throughout Jewish history, several notable figures have borne the name Shachar. One such individual is Shachar Shalev, an Israeli writer and poet born in 1973. Another is Shachar Hasson, an Israeli football player born in 1983 who has played for several clubs, including Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Haifa.
In the realm of scholarship, Shachar Pinsker, an Israeli literary scholar and professor at the University of Michigan, has made significant contributions to the study of Hebrew and Yiddish literature. He was born in 1970.
Moving beyond the Jewish tradition, the name Shachar has also been used in other cultures and contexts. For example, Shachar Biran is an Israeli-American composer and musician born in 1971, known for his contributions to film scores and contemporary classical music.
Another notable figure is Shachar Ilan, an Israeli artist and sculptor born in 1957. His works have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, exploring themes of identity, memory, and the human condition.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Shachar, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various cultural and artistic realms.
People
Shachar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shachar as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shachar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shachar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shachar going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 28,562,862 US residents.
Is Shachar a common name?
We classify Shachar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 32.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shachar most popular?
The single biggest year for Shachar was 1982, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shachar is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shachar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 204 people with the name Shachar, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,948 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shachar in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shachar?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shachar on both sides of the split. Of the 200 people counted with this name, 155 were male (77.5%) and 45 were female (22.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shachar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shachar is White at 91.2%. The next largest groups are Black (3.4%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shachar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shachar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.2% (186 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shachar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shachar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shachar in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Shachar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shachar in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shachar can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Shachar?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.