Shamiyah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "elevated" or "lofty".
Name Census estimates that about 701 living Americans carry the first name Shamiyah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shamiyah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shamiyah births was 2008 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shamiyah. 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
701
~ 1 in 488,951 Americans
Peak year
2008
52 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,962
Tracked since 1996
Census
Shamiyah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 499 people with the first name Shamiyah, which placed it at #20,625 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
#20,625
National first-name rank
People counted
499
499 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
93.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shamiyah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamiyah is Black at 93.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.0%) and White (2.0%). 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 Shamiyah 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 Shamiyah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American93.4% · 466
- Two or more races3.0% · 15
- White2.0% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 8
Popularity
Shamiyah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shamiyah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 329 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
Shamiyah 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 Shamiyah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shamiyahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida recorded the most babies named Shamiyah, while Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shamiyah
The name Shamiyah is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "shams," which means "sun" in Arabic. It is a feminine name that is believed to have originated in the Middle East, where Arabic is widely spoken.
The earliest recorded use of the name Shamiyah dates back to the 7th century AD, during the rise of Islamic civilization in the Middle East. At that time, Arabic names were often inspired by nature, with many names reflecting celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars.
In Islamic tradition, the sun is a significant symbol of divine light and guidance. Therefore, the name Shamiyah may have been bestowed upon children as a way of wishing them a life filled with radiance, warmth, and enlightenment.
One of the earliest known historical figures with the name Shamiyah was Shamiyah bint al-Husayn, a renowned Muslim scholar and poet who lived in the 8th century AD. She was known for her vast knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and her contributions to the development of Arabic literature.
Another notable figure with the name Shamiyah was Shamiyah al-Baghdadiyah, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 9th century AD in Baghdad, Iraq. She made significant contributions to the fields of algebra and geometry, and her works were widely studied and appreciated in the Islamic world.
In the 11th century AD, Shamiyah al-Qurashiyah was a prominent Sufi mystic and poet from Persia (modern-day Iran). Her poetry was deeply spiritual and explored themes of divine love and self-realization, earning her a place among the most revered Sufi poets of her time.
During the 13th century AD, Shamiyah al-Malikah was a powerful and influential queen in the Ayyubid dynasty, which ruled over parts of the Middle East and North Africa. She was known for her political acumen and her patronage of the arts and sciences.
In the 15th century AD, Shamiyah al-Hawari was a renowned calligrapher and artist from the Ottoman Empire. Her intricate and beautiful calligraphic works adorned numerous mosques and palaces throughout the Ottoman lands, and she is considered one of the greatest calligraphers in Islamic history.
People
Shamiyah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shamiyah 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
Shamiyah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shamiyah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 701 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shamiyah 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 488,951 US residents.
Is Shamiyah a common name?
We classify Shamiyah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 709 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shamiyah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shamiyah was 2008, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shamiyah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shamiyah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 499 people with the name Shamiyah, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,625 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 Shamiyah 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 Shamiyah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shamiyah leans strongly female. 504 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 6 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Shamiyah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shamiyah is Black at 93.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.0%) and White (2.0%). 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 Shamiyah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shamiyah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.4% (466 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 Shamiyah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shamiyah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shamiyah 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 Shamiyah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shamiyah 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 Shamiyah 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 share the name Shamiyah?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.