Shareen
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "beautiful" or "illustrious."
Name Census estimates that about 845 living Americans carry the first name Shareen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shareen today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shareen births was 1972 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shareen. 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 Shareen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
845
~ 1 in 405,626 Americans
Peak year
1972
39 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2019 SSA rank
#17,610
Tracked since 1941
Census
Shareen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,050 people with the first name Shareen, which placed it at #12,014 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
#12,014
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,050 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
44.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shareen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shareen is White at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (19.2%). 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 Shareen 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 Shareen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White44.1% · 463
- Black or African American23.8% · 250
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.2% · 202
- Two or more races6.2% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 63
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 7
Popularity
Shareen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shareen from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 261 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shareen 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 Shareen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shareens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Shareen, while New Jersey, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 62 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shareen
The name Shareen is believed to have originated from the Persian language, with roots in the Middle Eastern region. It is a variation of the name Shirin, which means "sweet" or "beloved" in Persian. The earliest known use of this name dates back to the 7th century AD, during the era of the Sassanid Empire in ancient Persia.
One of the most famous historical references to the name Shareen can be found in the classic Persian epic poem, Shahnameh, written by the renowned poet Ferdowsi in the 10th century AD. In this literary masterpiece, Shirin is the name of a beautiful Armenian princess who captures the heart of the Persian king, Khosrow Parviz.
The name Shareen gained popularity across the Middle East and Central Asia during the medieval period, and several notable figures bore this name. One such figure was Shirin Buwayhi, a powerful queen who ruled over parts of modern-day Iran and Iraq in the 10th century AD. Another prominent bearer of the name was Shirin Khanum, a influential courtesan and poet who lived in 17th century India during the Mughal Empire.
As the name spread to other regions, variations in spelling and pronunciation emerged. In South Asia, the name was sometimes written as Shereen or Shireen, while in the Arab world, it was often spelled as Shareen or Sherine.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have carried the name Shareen or its variations. These include Shereen El-Feki, an Egyptian-Welsh author and academic born in 1965, known for her work on gender and sexuality in the Arab world. Shireen Mazari, born in 1950, is a Pakistani politician and author who has served as the Minister of Human Rights in Pakistan.
Another notable figure is Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work on democracy and human rights. Sherine Abdel Wahab, born in 1980, is an Egyptian singer and actress who has achieved widespread popularity in the Arab world.
People
Shareen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shareen 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
Shareen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shareen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 845 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shareen 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 405,626 US residents.
Is Shareen a common name?
We classify Shareen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 986 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shareen most popular?
The single biggest year for Shareen was 1972, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shareen is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shareen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,050 people with the name Shareen, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,014 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 Shareen 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 Shareen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shareen appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,048 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 Shareen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shareen is White at 44.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (19.2%). 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 Shareen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shareen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.1% (463 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 Shareen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shareen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shareen 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 Shareen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shareen 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 Shareen 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 common is the name Shareen?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.