Shakira
Feminine · “Arabic shakira”
Shakira means grateful. The Arabic root sh-k-r gives shukran, the ordinary word for thank you, heard a hundred times a day from Morocco to Iraq, and shakir and shakira, one who is thankful. The name reached the United States by an unusual route: from Lebanon to Colombia, and back north with a record.
How old is the name Shakira?
Shakira first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Shakira alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 8,100 people named Shakira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shakira most popular?
Shakira peaked in 2002, reaching #535 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,827 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shakira to Shakira
The story of Shakira
Lebanese emigration to Latin America was substantial from the 1880s onward, driven by economic pressure and Ottoman conscription, and the communities that resulted are large and long-established: Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico all have Lebanese populations of several generations' standing. Arabic given names survived in those families alongside Spanish ones, which is how a Colombian singer came to carry a plainly Arabic name. Her international breakthrough in 2001 and 2002 put it in front of an American audience that mostly had no idea it was Arabic, and the name enters the birth data immediately. So the route is Beirut to Barranquilla to Billboard, with the meaning intact and invisible for the whole journey. The root is one of the most audible in the language, since shukran is among the first words any visitor learns.
Meaning
Arabic shakira, grateful or thankful
From the Arabic root sh-k-r, associated with thanks and gratitude, giving shukr, thanks, shukran, thank you, and the adjective shakir with its feminine shakira. Al-Shakur, the Appreciative, is one of the ninety-nine names of God. The name is common across the Arabic-speaking world. It peaks in the American data in 2002.
How the name formed
- shakira
- Shakira
Related forms: Shakira · Shakira · Sakire
Pronouncing Shakira
shah-KEE-rah
Three syllables, stress on the second, long second vowel. Spanish and Arabic agree on the stress; English speakers sometimes say SHAK-ih-rah with the stress at the front.
Nicknames for Shakira
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 1997383 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #535reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%12 in 2025, from 16
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.
Shakira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shakira in Arabic — transliteration
- Shakira in Urdu — same name
- Sakire in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Pennsylvania.
Shakiras among us
people named Shakira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Shakira
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 Marilee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shakira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marilee climbed just as high around 1942, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marilee's path sketches the road Shakira is walking now.
Shakira 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
Shakira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shakira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, positive and immediately recognizable to Arabic speakers.
- Kira gives a short form that is a full name elsewhere.
- It travels between Arabic, Spanish and English contexts.
- One performer dominates the association completely.
- English speakers sometimes move the stress forward.
- It is closely dated to the early 2000s in the United States.
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What they receive
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Shakira
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shakiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,100 people named Shakira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shakira in 2025?
- Shakira ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shakira?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Shakira — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shakira with classmates?
- Shakira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shakira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shakira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shakira and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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