Shiree
An English feminine name of Persian origin meaning "sweet".
Name Census estimates that about 569 living Americans carry the first name Shiree. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shiree today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shiree births was 1979 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shiree. 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 Shiree with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
569
~ 1 in 602,380 Americans
Peak year
1979
30 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2000 SSA rank
#17,225
Tracked since 1955
Census
Shiree in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 550 people with the first name Shiree, which placed it at #19,306 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
#19,306
National first-name rank
People counted
550
550 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shiree
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiree is Black at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (42.0%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Shiree 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 Shiree at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.5% · 234
- White42.0% · 231
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 34
- Two or more races6.0% · 33
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 7
Popularity
Shiree: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shiree from the 1950s through to the 2000s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 228 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
Shiree 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 Shiree during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shirees live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shiree
The name Shiree is thought to have origins in the Persian language, deriving from the word "shir" which means "lion" or "milk." It likely emerged as a given name in the region of Persia, now modern-day Iran, during the medieval period around the 11th to 13th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shiree can be found in the writings of the celebrated Persian poet Hafez, who lived from 1315 to 1390. In his poetic works, he makes reference to a woman named Shiree, though it is unclear if this was a real person or a symbolic figure.
Throughout the centuries, the name Shiree has been borne by several notable individuals across various cultures and regions. One such person was Shiree Farhang, a 16th-century Persian calligrapher and artist, renowned for her intricate and beautiful calligraphic works.
In the Indian subcontinent, the name Shiree gained popularity during the Mughal Empire, which ruled from the 16th to the 19th century. One notable figure was Shiree Begum, a Mughal princess and daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb, who lived from 1670 to 1714.
The name also found its way into the Arab world, where it was sometimes spelled as "Shiri" or "Shiri." One prominent example is Shiri Al-Nuri, an 18th-century Arab poet and scholar from modern-day Iraq, known for her contributions to Arabic literature.
In more recent times, the name Shiree has been carried by individuals from various backgrounds and cultures. For instance, Shiree Tardo was an American actress and dancer who appeared in several Broadway productions in the mid-20th century, born in 1920 and passing away in 2008.
People
Shiree + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shiree 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
Shiree: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shiree?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 569 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shiree 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 602,380 US residents.
Is Shiree a common name?
We classify Shiree as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 631 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shiree most popular?
The single biggest year for Shiree was 1979, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shiree is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shiree in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 550 people with the name Shiree, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,306 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 Shiree 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 Shiree?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shiree leans strongly female. 541 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Shiree?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shiree is Black at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (42.0%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Shiree most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shiree in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.5% (234 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 Shiree in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shiree a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shiree 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 Shiree still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shiree 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 Shiree 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 share the name Shiree?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.