Shan
Recorded 1944–2024 · United States
Shan was most popular in 1970, when 105 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,849 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 3,088 people named Shan.
Shan over time
How old is the name Shan?
Shan first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1944, which makes it about 81 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 80 of the 82 years since.
How many people are named Shan?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 3,088 American births named Shan between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 2,822 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Shan in 2025?
Shan was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Is Shan getting more or less popular?
Shan is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 9 births a year across 2021–2025 against 19 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Is Shan a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Shan is a unisex name — 28.0% of the 3,088 Americans given it were girls and 72.0% were boys. It changed hands: since 1965 it has gone mainly to boys, having gone mainly to girls before that. In births since 2016 it is 4% girls and 96% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
How old is someone named Shan?
Roughly 2,822 Americans named Shan are alive today — 91% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 48 years old, and half are between 31 and 57.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Where Shan is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Shan on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org