Shadrach
Masculine · “Babylonian”
Shadrach was not his name. The three young men in the fiery furnace were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, and their Babylonian captors renamed them Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — the renaming is part of the story, and it is about erasing who they were.
How old is the name Shadrach?
Shadrach first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Shadrach alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 800 people named Shadrach are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shadrach most popular?
Shadrach peaked in 1994, reaching #2847 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 4,832 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Hananiah to Shadrach
The story of Shadrach
Renaming captives and officials is a recurring instrument of power in the ancient Near East, and the book of Daniel makes it explicit: the four young Judeans taken to Babylon are given new names along with a new language and a new diet, and the narrative treats all three as a single program of assimilation. Daniel becomes Belteshazzar. The story then turns on their refusal to complete the transformation by worshipping the king's image. English use of Shadrach dates from the Reformation, when Protestant families took up Old Testament names broadly, and it became established in America; the figures peak in 1994.
Meaningnot established
Babylonian, of uncertain sense — possibly "command of Aku"
The name is given in the book of Daniel as the Babylonian name imposed on Hananiah, whose Hebrew name means Yahweh is gracious. Shadrach's derivation is not established; a connection to the moon god Aku is often proposed, on the pattern of Abednego, servant of Nebo. The point of the renaming in the narrative is that the new names invoke Babylonian gods where the Hebrew ones invoked Yahweh.
How the name formed
- Hananiah
- Shadrach
Related forms: שדרך · Sadrac
Pronouncing Shadrach
SHAD-rak
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the final ch said as a k. It is not the ch of church, and not the back fricative of Hebrew — English regularises it.
Nicknames for Shadrach
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1916
- Most boys named
- 200826 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2847reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%10 in 2025, from 12
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Shadrach in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- שדרך in Hebrew — transliteration
- Sadrac in Spanish — same name
Shadrachs among us
people named Shadrach are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Shadrach
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Reymond test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shadrach's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Reymond climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Reymond's path sketches the road Shadrach is walking now.
Shadrach sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Shadrach beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shadrach in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It carries one of the best-known narratives in the Hebrew Bible.
- Shad is a clean, established short form.
- It is distinctive without being difficult to say.
- The name is a Babylonian imposition within its own story.
- Its meaning is genuinely unrecovered.
- It is rare enough to need spelling out every time.
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Shadrach
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shadrachs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Shadrach are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shadrach in 2025?
- Shadrach ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shadrach?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Shadrach — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shadrach with classmates?
- Shadrach will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shadrach
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shadrach? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shadrach and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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