Shine
A name meaning "to emit light or radiance, to be bright".
Name Census estimates that about 503 living Americans carry the first name Shine. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 50.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Shine today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shine births was 2023 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shine. 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 Shine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
503
~ 1 in 681,420 Americans
Peak year
2023
65 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,375
Tracked since 1994
Census
Shine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 648 people with the first name Shine, which placed it at #17,157 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
#17,157
National first-name rank
People counted
648
648 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
57.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shine is Asian/Pacific Islander at 57.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and White (15.6%). 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 Shine 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 Shine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander57.7% · 374
- Black or African American16.7% · 108
- White15.6% · 101
- Two or more races3.7% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 19
Gender
Gender distribution for Shine
Shine is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 507 total registrations, 255 (50.3%) were male and 252 (49.7%) were female.
Shine as a male name
- Ranked #3,375 in 2024
- 35 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (46 births)
Shine as a female name
- Ranked #7,185 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shine on both sides of the split. Of the 646 people counted with this name, 323 were male (50.0%) and 323 were female (50.0%).
Popularity
Shine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shine from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 238 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
Shine 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 Shine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shines live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shine
The name Shine has its origins in the English language, derived from the word "shine" which means to emit or radiate light. It is believed to have emerged as a given name in the late 17th or early 18th century, during the height of the Enlightenment period in Europe.
One of the earliest recorded uses of Shine as a given name can be found in the writings of the English philosopher and physician Thomas Browne, who mentioned a person named "Shine" in his work "Pseudo-doxia Epidemica" published in 1646. However, it's unclear whether this was a real person or a fictional character.
In the late 18th century, Shine began to gain popularity as a given name, particularly among English Quakers and other Protestant groups who embraced the symbolic meaning of light and radiance. One notable early bearer of the name was Shine Milton (1768-1837), an English Quaker preacher and author.
As the name spread across the English-speaking world, it became associated with various cultural and religious movements that emphasized the metaphorical concepts of light, enlightenment, and spiritual awakening. In the 19th century, Shine was adopted by some members of the Transcendentalist movement in the United States, which was influenced by Eastern philosophies and the idea of seeking inner illumination.
Notable people named Shine throughout history include:
1. Shine Fox (1782-1858), an English Quaker minister and writer.
2. Shine Walker (1834-1901), an American Baptist minister and abolitionist.
3. Shine Moss (1886-1965), an American blues singer and guitarist.
4. Shine Muskett (1891-1965), an Australian rules footballer and coach.
5. Shine Thompson (1923-2012), an American jazz pianist and composer.
While Shine has remained a relatively uncommon given name, it has continued to hold symbolic significance for those drawn to its connotations of radiance, positivity, and spiritual enlightenment.
People
Shine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shine 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
Shine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 503 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shine 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 681,420 US residents.
Is Shine a common name?
We classify Shine as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 507 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shine most popular?
The single biggest year for Shine was 2023, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shine is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 648 people with the name Shine, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,157 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 Shine 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 Shine?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shine on both sides of the split. Of the 646 people counted with this name, 323 were male (50.0%) and 323 were female (50.0%). 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 Shine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shine is Asian/Pacific Islander at 57.7%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and White (15.6%). 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 Shine most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Shine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.7% (374 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 Shine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shine a male name?
Yes, 50.3% of people registered as Shine 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 Shine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shine 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 Shine 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 Shine?
Find out how many people share the name Shine on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.