Shareka
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "sharing" or "participation".
Name Census estimates that about 749 living Americans carry the first name Shareka. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shareka today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shareka births was 1986 (58 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shareka. 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
749
~ 1 in 457,616 Americans
Peak year
1986
58 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1999 SSA rank
#14,135
Tracked since 1972
Census
Shareka in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 621 people with the first name Shareka, which placed it at #17,644 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
#17,644
National first-name rank
People counted
621
621 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shareka
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shareka is Black at 94.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.4%) and White (1.6%). 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 Shareka 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 Shareka at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.4% · 586
- Two or more races2.4% · 15
- White1.6% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Shareka: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shareka from the 1970s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 481 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Shareka remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shareka 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 Shareka during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sharekas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Shareka, while Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 31 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shareka
The name Shareka is believed to have originated from the Arabic language, deriving from the root word "share'a," which means "elevated" or "exalted." The name's earliest known use dates back to the 7th century, during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Shareka was Shareka bint Abi Al-Rahman, a renowned scholar and poet who lived in the 8th century. She was highly respected for her contributions to the field of Arabic literature and her expertise in the Arabic language.
Another notable figure was Shareka Al-Andalusi, a 10th-century mathematician and astronomer from the Iberian Peninsula, now known as Spain and Portugal. She made significant contributions to the development of algebra and played a crucial role in the translation and preservation of ancient Greek and Roman texts.
In the 11th century, Shareka Al-Baghdadi was a highly influential Islamic jurist and theologian from Baghdad, Iraq. Her writings and teachings had a profound impact on the interpretation and application of Islamic law, particularly in the Sunni tradition.
During the 13th century, Shareka Al-Dimashqi was a celebrated author and historian from Damascus, Syria. Her comprehensive historical works provided valuable insights into the cultural and social life of the region during that era.
Moving forward to the 14th century, Shareka Al-Qahiri was a renowned physician and scholar from Cairo, Egypt. She made significant contributions to the field of medicine, particularly in the areas of ophthalmology and pharmacology.
While the name Shareka has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has been adopted and adapted in various regions and communities throughout history. The name has undergone various spelling variations and interpretations, reflecting the diversity of cultures and languages it has encountered.
People
Shareka + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shareka 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
Shareka: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shareka?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 749 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shareka 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 457,616 US residents.
Is Shareka a common name?
We classify Shareka as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 795 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shareka most popular?
The single biggest year for Shareka was 1986, when 58 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shareka is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shareka in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 621 people with the name Shareka, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,644 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 Shareka 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 Shareka?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shareka appears almost entirely female. Of the 619 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Shareka?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shareka is Black at 94.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.4%) and White (1.6%). 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 Shareka most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shareka in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.4% (586 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 Shareka in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shareka a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shareka 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 Shareka still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shareka 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 Shareka 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 Shareka?
See how many people have the name Shareka on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.