Sheneika
Feminine variation of the name Nicole; feminine form of the French masculine name Nicolas meaning "conqueror of the people".
Name Census estimates that about 73 living Americans carry the first name Sheneika. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sheneika today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sheneika births was 1984 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sheneika. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sheneika. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
73
~ 1 in 4,695,265 Americans
Peak year
1984
10 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1991 SSA rank
#15,057
Tracked since 1979
Popularity
Sheneika: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sheneika 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 60 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sheneika 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 Sheneika during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sheneika
The name Sheneika is a uniquely modern Anglicized spelling of the ancient Hebrew name Shanayka. Its origins trace back to the Semitic languages of the Middle East, with roots in the word "shanah" meaning "to repeat" or "to study."
In ancient times, Shanayka was a relatively uncommon name, though it appeared occasionally in texts from the region now known as Israel and the Palestinian territories. Some linguistic scholars believe the name may have been derived from a dialectical variation on the more common Hebrew names Sheyna and Shaina.
The earliest recorded instance of the spelling "Sheneika" dates back to the late 19th century, when it began appearing sporadically in immigration records and church documents from Jewish families arriving in the United States and United Kingdom from Eastern Europe. It's theorized that this Anglicized version emerged organically through transliteration and adaptation.
One of the first notable individuals recorded with the first name Sheneika was Sheneika Cohen (1871-1943), a Jewish educator and social worker who helped establish settlement houses and educational programs for new immigrants in New York City in the early 1900s.
Another early example is Sheneika Rubinstein (1889-1972), a Ukrainian-born American painter and printmaker celebrated for her depictions of New York cityscapes and rural scenes. Her works are included in the collections of major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In the mid-20th century, the name gained some popularity with the birth of Sheneika Williams (1938-2011), an African American community activist in Detroit who campaigned for fair housing, workers' rights, and youth mentorship programs over her five-decade career.
More recently, Sheneika Wilson (b. 1971) is a Jamaican-American television producer who has worked on hit shows like Empire, Star, and Greenleaf, earning multiple NAACP Image Award nominations.
Acclaimed Indian-American chef and cookbook author Sheneika Sundaram (b. 1979) has introduced modern interpretations of traditional South Asian cuisine to global audiences through her popular restaurants in New York and London.
People
Sheneika + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sheneika 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
Sheneika: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sheneika?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 73 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sheneika 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 4,695,265 US residents.
Is Sheneika a common name?
We classify Sheneika as "Very Rare". It ranks above 60% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 78 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sheneika most popular?
The single biggest year for Sheneika was 1984, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sheneika is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sheneika a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sheneika 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.
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.