Shamira
Feminine · “Hebrew shamir”
The shamir appears in the Talmud as the tool Solomon used to cut the stones of the Temple, since iron tools were forbidden on the altar. It is described as a creature the size of a barleycorn that could split any hard surface. The name Shamira is built from that word.
How old is the name Shamira?
Shamira first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Shamira alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 1,500 people named Shamira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shamira most popular?
Shamira peaked in 1991, reaching #1979 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,881 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From shamir to Shamira
The story of Shamira
The Talmudic shamir is one of the more startling objects in rabbinic literature. The problem it solves is a legal one: Exodus forbids using iron on the stones of the altar, on the reasoning that iron shortens life and the altar lengthens it, so the Temple could not be built with ordinary tools. The rabbis answered with the shamir, a creature or substance created at twilight on the sixth day of creation, kept wrapped in wool inside a lead box, and capable of cutting stone by being passed over it. It was lost, the tradition says, at the destruction of the First Temple. As an etymology it gives the name an unusually concrete image: not a virtue, not a blessing, but a tool for cutting stone without iron. The competing reading, from the guarding root, is quieter and more common in Israeli usage.
Meaningscholars disagree
Hebrew shamir, a hard stone or guardian
Two readings compete and both are defensible. Shamir in Biblical Hebrew means a hard stone, flint or diamond, and appears in Jeremiah and Ezekiel as an image of hardness. Shamira can equally be read from the root sh-m-r, to guard or keep, giving guardian, the same root behind shomer and shmirah. Hebrew names built on a triliteral root often support both a noun and a participle reading, and there is no way to choose between them for any individual bearer. The American peak is 1991.
How the name formed
- shamir
- Shamira
Related forms: Shamira · Shamir
Pronouncing Shamira
shah-MEER-ah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Israeli Hebrew stresses the final syllable, shah-mee-RAH; American usage almost always moves it forward.
Nicknames for Shamira
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
- 1973
- Most girls named
- 199170 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1979reached in 1991
- Change vs 2024
- −15.4%11 in 2025, from 13
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.
Shamira in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shamira in Hebrew — same name
- Shamir in Hebrew — related form
Shamiras among us
people named Shamira are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Shamira
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 Sherese test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shamira's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sherese climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sherese's path sketches the road Shamira is walking now.
Shamira 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
Shamira beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shamira in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mira works as a short form and is a name in its own right.
- Both possible meanings are strong ones.
- The sounds are all straightforward in English.
- Samira is a separate Arabic name with a similar sound and constant confusion.
- Hebrew and American stress patterns disagree.
- The two readings of the root cannot be resolved.
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What they receive
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Shamira
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shamiras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Shamira are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shamira in 2025?
- Shamira ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shamira?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Shamira — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shamira with classmates?
- Shamira will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shamira
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shamira? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shamira and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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