Shanta
Feminine · “calm”
Shanta is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 5,112 girls against 142 boys since 1880.
Shanta is a real word in Sanskrit and a built name in America, and the two arrived at the same spelling without meeting. Sanskrit shanta means calm, peaceful, at rest — it is the past participle of a verb about becoming quiet, and it is used in Indian naming. The American Shanta is Sha- and -anta, assembled.
How old is the name Shanta?
Shanta first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Shanta alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 4,900 people named Shanta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shanta most popular?
Shanta peaked in 1978, reaching #517 nationally. See the whole 1978 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Shanta
Shanti is one of the most widely known Sanskrit words outside India, closing prayers and turning up in Western poetry, and shanta is its adjective. Indian naming uses it directly. American combination naming meanwhile produced Shanta, Shonta and Shauntay from its own inventory in the same decades, and the record does not separate the two streams. Where a name can be a genuine borrowing or a coincidence, the honest thing is to describe both and say which is likelier for a particular family only if they know.
Meaningscholars disagree
calm; at peace
Sanskrit shanta means pacified or tranquil, from sham, to become quiet, and it gives shanti, the word for peace that closes many Hindu prayers. That is a real word with a real meaning and it is used as a name in India. Whether an American Shanta descends from it or was built from the standard prefix and an ending is not recoverable, and the two possibilities are quite far apart.
Pronouncing Shanta
SHAHN-tuh
SHAHN-tuh, two syllables, stress at the front, the first vowel open. Sanskrit gives the sh a retroflex quality English does not have and the final vowel a fuller value, SHAAN-taa, but the shape is the same in both.
Nicknames for Shanta
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 1978360 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #517reached in 1978
- Change vs 2011
- −28.6%5 in 2014, from 7
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.
Shanta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- शान्ता in Sanskrit — transliteration
- Shanti in Hindi — related form
Shantas among us
people named Shanta are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Shanta sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- There is a genuine Sanskrit word behind it with a settled and attractive meaning.
- Two syllables, said correctly by everyone on first sight.
- It works for either child, which the record confirms.
- Shanta, Shanti and Shawnta are all in use and close in sound.
- The Sanskrit meaning belongs to one of two possible origins, so it comes with a hedge.
- It is closely tied to one American generation and dates a person fairly precisely.
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Shanta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Shantas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Shanta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shanta in 2025?
- Shanta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Shanta with classmates?
- Shanta will almost certainly be the only one in school.
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The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shanta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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