Shahed
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "witness" or "martyr".
Name Census estimates that about 151 living Americans carry the first name Shahed. It is a predominantly female name (93.5% of registrations). The average person named Shahed today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shahed births was 2006 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shahed. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shahed with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
151
~ 1 in 2,269,896 Americans
Peak year
2006
15 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
1991 SSA rank
#9,396
Tracked since 1986
Census
Shahed in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 572 people with the first name Shahed, which placed it at #18,742 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
#18,742
National first-name rank
People counted
572
572 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shahed
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shahed is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (32.3%) and Two or More Races (6.8%). 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 Shahed 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 Shahed at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 332
- Asian and Pacific Islander32.3% · 185
- Two or more races6.8% · 39
- Black or African American1.9% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Shahed
Shahed leans heavily female at 93.5% of total registrations, but 10 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shahed as a male name
- Ranked #9,396 in 1991
- 5 male births in 1991
- Peak: 1986 (5 births)
Shahed as a female name
- Ranked #17,230 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2006 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shahed on both sides of the split. Of the 578 people counted with this name, 246 were male (42.6%) and 332 were female (57.4%).
Popularity
Shahed: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shahed from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 81 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shahed 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 Shahed 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 Shahed
The name Shahed finds its origins in Arabic, a Semitic language spoken across the Middle East and North Africa. It derives from the Arabic word "shahada," meaning "testimony" or "witness." The name has been in use since the early days of Islam, which emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century CE.
One of the earliest known references to the name Shahed can be found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. The term "shaheed" is used in the Quran to refer to a martyr or one who bears witness to their faith. This religious connotation has contributed to the name's popularity among Muslims worldwide.
The name Shahed has been borne by several notable figures throughout history. One of the earliest recorded examples is Shahed ibn Abdullah al-Balkhi, a 9th-century Persian scholar and philosopher known for his writings on Sufism and Islamic mysticism.
In the 12th century, Shahed al-Din al-Suhrawardi, a Persian philosopher and mystic, was a prominent figure in the development of the Illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy. His works had a profound influence on subsequent thinkers and mystics in the region.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Shahed Ali Khan, a 17th-century Mughal nobleman and military commander who served under the emperors Aurangzeb and Bahadur Shah I. He played a significant role in the expansion and consolidation of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent.
In more recent times, Shahed Amanullah was a pioneering Bengali writer and activist from undivided India, born in 1875. He was a vocal advocate for women's rights and played a crucial role in the Bengali Renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Shahed Latif, born in 1936, was a celebrated Bangladeshi poet and writer who made significant contributions to modern Bengali literature. His works often explored themes of social injustice, political turmoil, and the human condition.
While the name Shahed has its roots in the Islamic tradition, it has transcended religious boundaries and is used by people of various backgrounds worldwide. Its meaning as a "witness" or "testimony" has resonated across cultures, making it a popular choice for parents seeking a name with depth and significance.
People
Shahed + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shahed 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
Shahed: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shahed?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 151 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shahed 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 2,269,896 US residents.
Is Shahed a common name?
We classify Shahed as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 153 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shahed most popular?
The single biggest year for Shahed was 2006, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shahed is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shahed in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 572 people with the name Shahed, or 0.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #18,742 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 Shahed 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 Shahed?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shahed on both sides of the split. Of the 578 people counted with this name, 246 were male (42.6%) and 332 were female (57.4%). 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 Shahed?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shahed is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (32.3%) and Two or More Races (6.8%). 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 Shahed most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shahed in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (332 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 Shahed in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shahed a female name?
Yes, 93.5% of people registered as Shahed in the SSA data are female. 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 Shahed still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shahed 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 Shahed 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 Shahed?
You can see how many people share the name Shahed on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.