Shae
Masculine · “hawk-like”
Shae is given to both — 1,629 boys and 6,065 girls since 1880. See Shae as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Shea is one of the very few Irish surnames that went unisex and stayed that way. Most cross to girls and the boys leave; this one split the difference, and the spelling does the sorting: Shea and Shay lean male, Shae and Shaye lean female.
How old is the name Shae?
Shae first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Shae alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 1,600 people named Shae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shae most popular?
Shae peaked in 1990, reaching #1326 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 5,477 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Seaghdha to Shae
The story of Shae
The O'Sheas are a Kerry family, and the surname reached America in volume with nineteenth-century emigration. Its move into given names began in the 1970s for both sexes at once, which is unusual; most surnames arrive on boys and cross later. Because the sound is short and soft, it did not read as decisively male, and American families used the available spellings to mark the difference themselves, without any authority telling them to. That is how English handles a problem it has no grammar for. The male side of Shae peaks in 1990, and the spelling remains the minority one for boys.
Meaningscholars disagree
hawk-like, admirable, or fine
The Irish byname Seaghdha, behind the surname O Seaghdha and its anglicization O'Shea, is glossed variously as hawk-like, fine or admirable, and the readings compete. None is secure. The spelling Shae is an English respelling with no Irish warrant and carries no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- Seaghdha
- O Seaghdha
- Shea
- Shae
Related forms: Seaghdha · Shea · Shay
Pronouncing Shae
SHAY
One syllable, rhyming with day. All four spellings are identical aloud; the ae is a long a, not the ee it would be in a Latin word.
Nicknames for Shae
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
- 1969
- Most boys named
- 199070 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1326reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −47.8%12 in 2025, from 23
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.
Shae in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Seaghdha in Irish — related form
- Shea in English — spelling variant
- Shay in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Shaes among us
people named Shae are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Shae
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 Verdell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shae's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Verdell climbed just as high around 1936, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Verdell's path sketches the road Shae is walking now.
Shae 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
Shae beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shae in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine Irish surname with real families behind it.
- One syllable and four letters, impossible to mispronounce.
- Fully unisex, which some families count as an advantage.
- This spelling leans female in American use.
- Shea, Shay, Shae and Shaye all circulate and split the records.
- The Irish original is unrecognizable from any of the English spellings.
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What they receive
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Shae
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shaes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Shae are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shae in 2025?
- Shae ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shae?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Shae — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shae with classmates?
- Shae will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shae
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shae? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shae and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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