Shai
Hebrew name meaning "gift" or "present."
Name Census estimates that about 3,983 living Americans carry the first name Shai. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 55.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Shai today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shai births was 2023 (340 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shai. 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 Shai with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Shai sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Shai is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.0K
~ 1 in 86,054 Americans
Peak year
2023
340 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,086
Tracked since 1968
Census
Shai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,819 people with the first name Shai, which placed it at #5,881 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
#5,881
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,819 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shai is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.6%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Shai 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 Shai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.4% · 1,563
- Black or African American20.6% · 582
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 273
- Two or more races7.9% · 224
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.1% · 145
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Shai
Shai is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 4,047 total registrations, 2,254 (55.7%) were male and 1,793 (44.3%) were female.
Shai as a male name
- Ranked #1,086 in 2024
- 200 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (224 births)
Shai as a female name
- Ranked #1,963 in 2024
- 101 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (116 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shai on both sides of the split. Of the 2,822 people counted with this name, 1,553 were male (55.0%) and 1,269 were female (45.0%).
Popularity
Shai: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shai from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,453 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
Shai 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 Shai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shais live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, New York, Florida recorded the most babies named Shai, while Nevada, Indiana, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 75 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shai
The name Shai has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "sha'i," which means "gift" or "present." This name has been in use for centuries among Jewish communities across the Middle East and beyond.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shai can be found in the biblical book of Samuel, where it is mentioned as the name of a son of Adonikam, who returned from the Babylonian exile. This suggests that the name was already in use during the 6th century BCE.
In the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, there is a reference to a sage named Shai, who lived in the 3rd century CE. This historical figure is often cited as an early example of the name's usage.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Shai remained popular among Jewish communities, particularly in the Sephardic diaspora. One notable figure from this period was Shai ben Melekh, a 14th-century Jewish philosopher and scholar from Spain.
During the Renaissance, the name gained some popularity outside of Jewish communities as well. In 16th-century Italy, there was a famous artist named Shai Simonovich, known for his elaborate frescoes and religious paintings.
In more recent times, one of the most well-known individuals with the name Shai was the Israeli general and politician Shai Agnon (1888-1970), who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966 for his contributions to modern Hebrew literature.
Other notable figures with the name Shai include Shai Afsai (1925-2020), an Iranian-born Israeli physicist and academic; Shai Agassi (born 1968), an Israeli-American entrepreneur and technologist; and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (born 1998), a Canadian professional basketball player in the NBA.
Overall, the name Shai has a rich history that spans various cultures and time periods, with its roots firmly grounded in the Hebrew language and tradition. Its meaning as a "gift" or "present" has undoubtedly contributed to its enduring popularity throughout the ages.
People
Shai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shai 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
Shai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,983 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shai 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 86,054 US residents.
Is Shai a common name?
We classify Shai as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,047 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shai most popular?
The single biggest year for Shai was 2023, when 340 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shai is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,819 people with the name Shai, or 0.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,881 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 Shai 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 Shai?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shai on both sides of the split. Of the 2,822 people counted with this name, 1,553 were male (55.0%) and 1,269 were female (45.0%). 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 Shai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shai is White at 55.4%. The next largest groups are Black (20.6%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Shai most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.4% (1,563 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 Shai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shai a male name?
Yes, 55.7% of people registered as Shai 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 Shai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shai 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 Shai 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 named Shai?
Find out how many people share the name Shai on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.