Shenetta
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a variant of Jeanette.
Name Census estimates that about 208 living Americans carry the first name Shenetta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shenetta today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shenetta births was 1979 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shenetta. 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
208
~ 1 in 1,647,857 Americans
Peak year
1979
16 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
1992 SSA rank
#15,226
Tracked since 1960
Census
Shenetta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 211 people with the first name Shenetta, which placed it at #37,164 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
#37,164
National first-name rank
People counted
211
211 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
95.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shenetta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shenetta is Black at 95.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and Hispanic (0.5%). 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 Shenetta 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 Shenetta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American95.3% · 201
- Two or more races3.8% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Shenetta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shenetta from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 100 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
Shenetta 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 Shenetta 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 Shenetta
The name Shenetta is thought to have originated in the English language, likely emerging in the 19th century as a feminine form of the name Shen. The name Shen is derived from the Old English word "scene," meaning "beautiful" or "bright."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Shenetta can be found in the 1871 novel "A Daughter of Heth" by William Black, where it is mentioned as the name of a character. However, the name remained relatively uncommon until the 20th century.
Historically, the name Shenetta does not appear to have any significant religious or cultural associations. It is primarily an English given name without direct ties to ancient texts or scriptures.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Shenetta was Shenetta Jones, an African American singer and actress born in 1919 in Mississippi. She performed in various musical revues and stage shows in the 1940s and 1950s.
Another early bearer of the name was Shenetta Curry, an American singer and actress born in 1929. She appeared in several Broadway musicals and television shows throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
In the late 20th century, Shenetta Benjamin, an American track and field athlete, gained recognition. Born in 1964, she won a gold medal in the 4x400m relay at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
Shenetta Selden, an American basketball player born in 1971, also achieved success in her sport. She played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for several teams, including the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty.
More recently, Shenetta Jones, an American professional wrestler better known by her ring name Sheneta, has been active in the independent wrestling circuit since the early 2000s.
People
Shenetta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shenetta 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
Shenetta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shenetta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shenetta 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 1,647,857 US residents.
Is Shenetta a common name?
We classify Shenetta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 230 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shenetta most popular?
The single biggest year for Shenetta was 1979, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shenetta 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 Shenetta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 211 people with the name Shenetta, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #37,164 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 Shenetta 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 Shenetta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shenetta leans strongly female. 212 people counted with this name were female (98.6%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.4%). 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 Shenetta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shenetta is Black at 95.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and Hispanic (0.5%). 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 Shenetta most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shenetta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.3% (201 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 Shenetta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shenetta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shenetta 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 Shenetta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shenetta 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 Shenetta 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 Americans are named Shenetta?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.