Shirel
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "my song" or "composition".
Name Census estimates that about 348 living Americans carry the first name Shirel. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shirel today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shirel births was 2022 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shirel. 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 Shirel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
348
~ 1 in 984,926 Americans
Peak year
2022
25 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,930
Tracked since 1954
Census
Shirel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 311 people with the first name Shirel, which placed it at #28,739 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
#28,739
National first-name rank
People counted
311
311 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shirel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shirel is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Hispanic (16.4%). 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 Shirel 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 Shirel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.3% · 197
- Black or African American16.7% · 52
- Hispanic or Latino16.4% · 51
- Two or more races2.3% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 4
Popularity
Shirel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shirel from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 133 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Shirel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shirel 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 Shirel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shirels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Shirel, while Florida, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 26 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shirel
The name Shirel is believed to have originated from the Hebrew language. It is a relatively modern name, with its first recorded use dating back to the late 20th century. The name is thought to be a combination of the Hebrew words "shir" meaning "song" and "el" meaning "God" or "mighty one."
While the exact origin of the name is unclear, some historians suggest that it may have been derived from the biblical name Shira, which is mentioned in the Book of Exodus. Shira was the name of the sister of Moses, who is celebrated for leading the Israelites in a song of praise after their miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Shirel was Shirel Azulai, an Israeli singer and songwriter born in 1975. She gained popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s for her unique blend of traditional Middle Eastern music and contemporary pop influences.
Another notable figure with the name Shirel was Shirel Berkovic, an Israeli tennis player born in 1983. She achieved a career-high ranking of No. 45 in the world and won several international tournaments during her professional career.
In the field of academia, Shirel Guez is a distinguished Israeli computer scientist and professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She has made significant contributions to the study of algorithms and data structures.
Shirel Perelstein, born in 1985, is an Israeli artist known for her intricate and thought-provoking installations. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, and she has received numerous awards and accolades for her innovative approach to art.
Lastly, Shirel Mashiach is an Israeli journalist and author born in 1976. She has written several books on contemporary Israeli society and has gained recognition for her insightful commentary on social and political issues.
While the name Shirel is relatively new and its origins are not entirely clear, it has already been borne by a diverse group of accomplished individuals in various fields, ranging from music and sports to academia and the arts.
People
Shirel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shirel 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
Shirel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shirel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 348 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shirel 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 984,926 US residents.
Is Shirel a common name?
We classify Shirel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 360 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shirel most popular?
The single biggest year for Shirel was 2022, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shirel is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shirel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 311 people with the name Shirel, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,739 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 Shirel 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 Shirel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shirel leans strongly female. 295 people counted with this name were female (93.9%), compared with 19 male bearers (6.1%). 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 Shirel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shirel is White at 63.3%. The next largest groups are Black (16.7%) and Hispanic (16.4%). 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 Shirel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shirel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.3% (197 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 Shirel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shirel a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shirel 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 Shirel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shirel 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 Shirel 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 Shirel?
Want to know how many people have the name Shirel? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.