Shaw
An anglicized variant of the Irish surname Ó Séaghdha meaning "descendant of Séaghdha".
Name Census estimates that about 1,302 living Americans carry the first name Shaw. It is a predominantly male name (95.9% of registrations). The average person named Shaw today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaw births was 2016 (39 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaw. 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 Shaw with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Shaw is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 56 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 263,252 Americans
Peak year
2016
39 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,289
Tracked since 1914
Census
Shaw in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,689 people with the first name Shaw, which placed it at #8,567 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
#8,567
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,689 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shaw
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaw is White at 59.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Shaw 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 Shaw at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.9% · 1,012
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.8% · 301
- Black or African American11.8% · 199
- Two or more races4.8% · 81
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 76
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Shaw
Shaw leans heavily male at 95.9% of total registrations, but 56 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shaw as a male name
- Ranked #4,289 in 2024
- 25 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (39 births)
Shaw as a female name
- Ranked #17,262 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaw leans strongly male. 1,395 people counted with this name were male (82.9%), compared with 288 female bearers (17.1%).
Popularity
Shaw: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaw from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 309 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Shaw remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shaw 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 Shaw during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shaws live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shaw
The name Shaw has its origins in the Middle English word 'shawe', which means a small woody grove or thicket. This name likely emerged in the 13th or 14th century as a descriptive surname for someone who lived near a small wood or thicket.
In its earliest form, the name was spelled in various ways, such as 'Schawe', 'Shawes', or 'Shawe'. It's believed to be derived from the Old English word 'sceaga', which also means a small wood or grove.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Shaw can be found in the 14th-century Cheshire Pipe Rolls, which mention a person named Richard del Shawe. There are also records of individuals with the name Shaw in Yorkshire and Lancashire around the same time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Shaw. One of the earliest was George Shaw (1751-1813), an English botanist and zoologist who made significant contributions to the study of natural history.
Another notable Shaw was George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), the renowned Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 for his work in the field of drama.
In the realm of music, Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader, known for his innovative swing music and for leading one of the most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Robert Shaw (1916-1999) was an American conductor and choral director who made significant contributions to the choral music scene in the United States. He founded the Robert Shaw Chorale and was widely regarded as one of the finest choral conductors of his time.
In the world of sports, Walter "Buck" Shaw (1910-1977) was an American football player and coach who served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals who have borne the name Shaw throughout history, highlighting its enduring presence and significance across various fields and cultures.
People
Shaw + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaw 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
Shaw: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaw?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,302 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaw 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 263,252 US residents.
Is Shaw a common name?
We classify Shaw as "Rare". It ranks above 91.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,371 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaw most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaw was 2016, when 39 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaw is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shaw in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,689 people with the name Shaw, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,567 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 Shaw 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 Shaw?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shaw leans strongly male. 1,395 people counted with this name were male (82.9%), compared with 288 female bearers (17.1%). 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 Shaw?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shaw is White at 59.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%) and Black (11.8%). 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 Shaw most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shaw in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.9% (1,012 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 Shaw in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shaw a male name?
Yes, 95.9% of people registered as Shaw 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 Shaw still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shaw 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 Shaw 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 Shaw?
Find out how many people have the name Shaw on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.