Shua
A Hebrew name meaning "God is salvation" or "God saves".
Name Census estimates that about 46 living Americans carry the first name Shua. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Shua today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shua births was 2023 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shua. 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 Shua with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shua. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
46
~ 1 in 7,451,181 Americans
Peak year
2023
10 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,206
Tracked since 1981
Census
Shua in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 196 people with the first name Shua, which placed it at #38,869 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
#38,869
National first-name rank
People counted
196
196 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
61.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shua
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shua is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.1%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Shua 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 Shua at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander61.7% · 121
- White28.1% · 55
- Black or African American5.1% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 8
- Two or more races1.0% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Shua
Shua is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 47 total registrations, 36 (76.6%) were male and 11 (23.4%) were female.
Shua as a male name
- Ranked #8,206 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (10 births)
Shua as a female name
- Ranked #12,233 in 1985
- 5 female births in 1985
- Peak: 1981 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shua on both sides of the split. Of the 197 people counted with this name, 84 were male (42.6%) and 113 were female (57.4%).
Popularity
Shua: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shua from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 36 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
Shua 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 Shua during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shuas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shua
The name Shua is of Hebrew origin and can be traced back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "shua," which means "wealth" or "riches." In the Bible, the name appears in the Book of Genesis, where Shua is mentioned as one of the sons of Abraham's concubine Keturah.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Shua, the Canaanite whose daughter Judah married. This event is described in the Book of Genesis and is believed to have occurred around the 18th century BCE. Another biblical figure bearing this name was Shua, the father of Judah's wife Bathshua, who lived during the same era.
In ancient Egypt, the name Shua was also used, although its spelling and pronunciation may have varied slightly. One notable figure from Egyptian history with this name was Shua, a high-ranking official during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th century BCE.
During the Middle Ages, the name Shua was relatively uncommon, but it did appear occasionally in various regions of Europe and the Middle East. One notable individual was Shua ibn Tulun, a 9th-century Arab mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry.
In more recent history, several individuals have borne the name Shua. One example is Shua Cohen Semah, an 18th-century Moroccan rabbi and scholar who wrote extensively on Jewish law and philosophy. Another is Shua Amoyal, an Israeli author and journalist born in 1939, known for his works on Jewish history and culture.
Other notable individuals with the name Shua include Shua Wilmot, an American actor and musician born in 1976, and Shua Sanchez, a Mexican professional boxer who competed in the lightweight division in the early 2000s.
While the name Shua is not as common as some other Hebrew names, it has a rich history and has been carried by individuals across various cultures and time periods, each contributing to the legacy and meaning of this ancient name.
People
Shua + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shua 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
Shua: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shua?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 46 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shua 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 7,451,181 US residents.
Is Shua a common name?
We classify Shua as "Very Rare". It ranks above 53.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shua most popular?
The single biggest year for Shua was 2023, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shua is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shua in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 196 people with the name Shua, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,869 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 Shua 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 Shua?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shua on both sides of the split. Of the 197 people counted with this name, 84 were male (42.6%) and 113 were female (57.4%). 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 Shua?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shua is Asian/Pacific Islander at 61.7%. The next largest groups are White (28.1%) and Black (5.1%). 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 Shua most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Shua in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.7% (121 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 Shua in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shua a male name?
Yes, 76.6% of people registered as Shua 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 Shua still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shua 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 Shua 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 Shua?
See how many Americans are named Shua on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.