Shamira
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "bright, beautiful rose".
Name Census estimates that about 1,487 living Americans carry the first name Shamira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shamira today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shamira births was 1991 (70 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shamira. 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 Shamira with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 230,501 Americans
Peak year
1991
70 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,325
Tracked since 1973
Census
Shamira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,283 people with the first name Shamira, which placed it at #10,420 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
#10,420
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shamira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamira is Black at 71.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%). 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 Shamira 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 Shamira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.6% · 919
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 180
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 74
- Two or more races4.2% · 54
- White3.8% · 49
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 7
Popularity
Shamira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shamira from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 477 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shamira 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 Shamira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shamiras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York recorded the most babies named Shamira, while California, Michigan, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shamira
The name Shamira has its roots in the Arabic language, with origins dating back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic word "shamirah," which means "watchful" or "vigilant." This name is believed to have originated in the Middle East, particularly in regions where Arabic was the predominant language.
In ancient Arabic texts and poetry, the name Shamira was often associated with the concept of protection and watchfulness. It was sometimes used as a descriptive term for guardians or sentinels, reflecting the vigilant nature of the name's meaning.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shamira can be found in the historical records of the Umayyad Caliphate, which ruled over a vast territory spanning from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia between the 7th and 8th centuries CE. During this period, the name Shamira was borne by several notable individuals, including a renowned female scholar and poet known as Shamira bint Al-Hasan Al-Ansari (born around 680 CE).
Throughout the centuries, the name Shamira has been carried by numerous influential figures across various cultures and regions influenced by Arabic language and traditions. One such notable figure was Shamira Al-Andalusiyya (1000-1067 CE), a revered poet and scholar from the Iberian Peninsula during the Golden Age of Islamic civilization.
In the 12th century, a prominent female mathematician and astronomer named Shamira Al-Qurashiyya (1115-1185 CE) made significant contributions to the field of science in the Islamic world, furthering the legacy of the name Shamira.
During the Ottoman Empire, the name Shamira was also borne by several influential women, including Shamira Khanum (1504-1580 CE), a renowned poet and calligrapher, and Shamira Sultan (1642-1704 CE), a powerful political figure and wife of Sultan Mehmed IV.
Throughout its history, the name Shamira has been carried by numerous individuals, each leaving their mark in various fields, including literature, science, and politics. These examples highlight the enduring presence and significance of this name across different eras and cultures influenced by the Arabic language.
People
Shamira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shamira 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
Shamira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shamira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,487 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shamira 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 230,501 US residents.
Is Shamira a common name?
We classify Shamira as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,537 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shamira most popular?
The single biggest year for Shamira was 1991, when 70 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shamira is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shamira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,283 people with the name Shamira, or 0.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,420 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 Shamira 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 Shamira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shamira appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,279 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Shamira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamira is Black at 71.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%). 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 Shamira most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shamira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.6% (919 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 Shamira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shamira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shamira 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 Shamira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shamira 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 Shamira 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 have the name Shamira?
See how many people have the name Shamira on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.