Shaheed
Masculine · “Arabic shahid”
Martyr means witness in Greek, and shahid means witness in Arabic. Two religious traditions arrived independently at the same metaphor: the person who dies for a belief is testifying to it.
How old is the name Shaheed?
Shaheed first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Shaheed alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,100 people named Shaheed are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shaheed most popular?
Shaheed peaked in 1977, reaching #1450 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 9,245 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shahid to Shaheed
The story of Shaheed
The Arabic root behind this name runs through the central vocabulary of Islam. The shahada, the declaration that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger, is grammatically a testimony: I bear witness. A shahid is one who bears witness, and by extension one who dies doing so. Greek did the same thing four centuries earlier: martys meant a witness in a legal sense, the early church used it for those who testified to their faith under interrogation, and the word narrowed until it meant only those who died. Two unrelated languages, one metaphor, arrived at separately. English inherited the Greek word and has nothing of its own, so the connection between witnessing and martyrdom is invisible in English and obvious in both source languages.
Meaning
Arabic shahid, witness or martyr
From the Arabic root sh-h-d, to witness. The same root gives shahada, the profession of faith, which is literally a testimony, and shahid, a witness and hence a martyr. Greek martys made the same move, from witness to martyr, independently. The American peak is 1977.
How the name formed
- shahid
- Shaheed
Related forms: Shahid · Shahid
Pronouncing Shaheed
shah-HEED
Two syllables, stress on the second. The doubled ee marks a long vowel in transliteration.
Nicknames for Shaheed
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
- 1975
- Most boys named
- 199460 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1450reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%6 in 2025, from 8
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.
Shaheed in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shahid in Arabic — spelling variant
- Shahid in Urdu — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Shaheeds among us
people named Shaheed are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Shaheed
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 Kenn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shaheed's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kenn climbed just as high around 1958, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kenn's path sketches the road Shaheed is walking now.
Shaheed 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
Shaheed beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shaheed in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Arabic meaning is documented and central to the tradition.
- Two syllables with a firm ending.
- It is used across the Arabic and Urdu-speaking worlds.
- The martyrdom sense is prominent and carries weight.
- Shahid is the more standard transliteration.
- The 1977 peak dates its American use.
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Shaheed
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shaheeds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Shaheed are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shaheed in 2025?
- Shaheed ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shaheed?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Shaheed — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shaheed with classmates?
- Shaheed will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shaheed
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shaheed? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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