Shahrzad
A Persian feminine name meaning "keeper or defender of the city".
Name Census estimates that about 117 living Americans carry the first name Shahrzad. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shahrzad today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shahrzad births was 1979 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shahrzad. 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.
People living today
117
~ 1 in 2,929,524 Americans
Peak year
1979
12 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2001 SSA rank
#17,487
Tracked since 1976
Census
Shahrzad in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 922 people with the first name Shahrzad, which placed it at #13,189 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
#13,189
National first-name rank
People counted
922
922 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shahrzad
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shahrzad is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.8%) and Hispanic (1.0%). 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 Shahrzad 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 Shahrzad at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.9% · 801
- Two or more races10.8% · 100
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 9
- Black or African American0.9% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 4
Popularity
Shahrzad: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shahrzad from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 65 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shahrzad 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 Shahrzad during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shahrzads live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shahrzad
The name Shahrzad has its roots in the Persian language and culture, originating during the medieval Islamic era. The name is derived from the Persian words "shahr," meaning city, and "zad," meaning born or descended from, thus suggesting the meaning "city-born" or "of noble birth."
One of the earliest and most famous references to the name Shahrzad is found in the iconic Persian literary work, "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights," also known as the "Arabian Nights." In this collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, Shahrzad is the name of the storytelling queen who captivates her husband, the ruthless King Shahryar, with her enchanting tales, ultimately saving her life and those of countless other women.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Shahrzad date back to the 10th century CE during the Samanid Empire in Central Asia. One notable bearer of the name was Shahrzad Khatun, a princess from the Samanid dynasty, who lived in the late 10th century.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Shahrzad. One of the most famous was Shahrzad Mirzā Qājār (1805-1848), a Persian princess and the daughter of Fath Ali Shah Qajar, the second Shah of the Qajar dynasty in Iran. She was renowned for her literary talents and wrote several works, including a memoir titled "Tuhfat al-'Alam."
Another prominent figure with the name Shahrzad was Shahrzad Afshar (1898-1973), an Iranian feminist, writer, and educator. She played a significant role in advocating for women's rights and education in Iran during the early 20th century.
In the realm of literature, Shahrzad Gholami (1922-2005) was an influential Iranian novelist and short story writer. Her works often explored themes of gender, social class, and the complexities of Iranian society.
Shahrzad Akbar (born 1988) is a notable contemporary figure from Afghanistan. She is a former chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and has been an outspoken advocate for human rights, particularly women's rights, in her country.
The name Shahrzad has a rich cultural heritage, rooted in the Persian language and literature, and has been carried by numerous influential figures throughout history, spanning various fields and time periods.
People
Shahrzad + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shahrzad 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
Shahrzad: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shahrzad?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 117 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shahrzad 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 2,929,524 US residents.
Is Shahrzad a common name?
We classify Shahrzad as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shahrzad most popular?
The single biggest year for Shahrzad was 1979, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shahrzad is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shahrzad in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 922 people with the name Shahrzad, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,189 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 Shahrzad 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 Shahrzad?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shahrzad appears almost entirely female. Of the 926 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Shahrzad?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shahrzad is White at 86.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.8%) and Hispanic (1.0%). 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 Shahrzad most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shahrzad in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.9% (801 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 Shahrzad in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shahrzad a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shahrzad 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 Shahrzad still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shahrzad 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 Shahrzad 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 Americans are named Shahrzad?
Find out how many Americans are named Shahrzad on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.