Shiloh
A Hebrew name meaning "tranquil" or "his gift".
Name Census estimates that about 21,852 living Americans carry the first name Shiloh. It sits at #260 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 63.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Shiloh today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shiloh births was 2024 (2,248 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shiloh. 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 Shiloh with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Shiloh sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Shiloh is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,685 Americans
Peak year
2024
2,248 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#260
Tracked since 1969
Census
Shiloh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,323 people with the first name Shiloh, which placed it at #2,160 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
#2,160
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
12,323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shiloh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiloh is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (14.9%) and Hispanic (11.9%). 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 Shiloh 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 Shiloh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.1% · 7,277
- Black or African American14.9% · 1,837
- Hispanic or Latino11.9% · 1,466
- Two or more races9.4% · 1,164
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 384
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 195
Gender
Gender distribution for Shiloh
Shiloh is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 22,186 total registrations, 8,183 (36.9%) were male and 14,003 (63.1%) were female.
Shiloh as a male name
- Ranked #336 in 2024
- 1,032 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,032 births)
Shiloh as a female name
- Ranked #260 in 2024
- 1,216 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (1,216 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shiloh on both sides of the split. Of the 12,323 people counted with this name, 4,035 were male (32.7%) and 8,288 were female (67.3%).
Popularity
Shiloh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shiloh from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 8,122 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shiloh 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 Shiloh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shilohs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Shiloh, while North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 378 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shiloh
The name Shiloh has its origins in the Hebrew language and is deeply rooted in the biblical and religious traditions of ancient Israel. It is derived from the Hebrew word "shalom," which means "peace" or "tranquility," and the ancient city of Shiloh, which was an important religious center in the region.
According to the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, Shiloh was a city located in the hill country of Ephraim and served as the resting place for the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred relic containing the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The city held great significance in the early Israelite tradition and was considered a holy site for worship and religious gatherings.
The earliest recorded use of the name Shiloh can be found in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Genesis, where it is mentioned as a messianic title. In Genesis 49:10, it is written, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people."
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Shiloh. One of the earliest recorded examples is Shiloh, the son of Judah and Shua, mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Another biblical figure named Shiloh was a prophet during the time of the Judges, as mentioned in the Book of Judges.
In more recent times, Shiloh was the name of a Native American chief of the Chickasaw tribe, who lived in the early 19th century and played a significant role in the tribe's resistance against the United States government's efforts to remove them from their ancestral lands.
Another notable bearer of the name was Shiloh Pepin (1835-1891), a prominent American judge and politician who served as a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and as a member of the United States House of Representatives.
In the realm of literature, Shiloh is the title of a novel by Bobbie Ann Mason, published in 1982, which explores the lives of a working-class family in Kentucky. The novel's title is a reference to the biblical city of Shiloh and its significance in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
The name Shiloh has also been used in various artistic and creative works, such as songs, films, and television shows, reflecting its enduring cultural significance and the fascination with its biblical origins and historical connotations.
People
Shiloh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shiloh 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
Shiloh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shiloh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,852 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shiloh 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 15,685 US residents.
Is Shiloh a common name?
We classify Shiloh as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22,186 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shiloh most popular?
The single biggest year for Shiloh was 2024, when 2,248 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shiloh is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shiloh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,323 people with the name Shiloh, or 4.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,160 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 Shiloh 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 Shiloh?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shiloh on both sides of the split. Of the 12,323 people counted with this name, 4,035 were male (32.7%) and 8,288 were female (67.3%). 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 Shiloh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiloh is White at 59.1%. The next largest groups are Black (14.9%) and Hispanic (11.9%). 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 Shiloh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shiloh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.1% (7,277 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 Shiloh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shiloh a female name?
Yes, 63.1% of people registered as Shiloh 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 Shiloh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shiloh 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 Shiloh 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 Shiloh as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Shiloh on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.