Sheena
Feminine · “God is gracious”
Sheena is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 22,380 girls against 67 boys since 1880.
Sheena is Gaelic Jane written for English eyes. Sìne is the Scottish Gaelic form of Jeanne, and Sheena is what happens when that spelling is replaced by one that tells an English speaker how to say it.
How old is the name Sheena?
Sheena first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Sheena alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 21,500 people named Sheena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sheena most popular?
Sheena peaked in 1984, reaching #80 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 7,805 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Sheena appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Yohanan to Sheena
The story of Sheena
Norman French carried Jeanne into Scotland, where Gaelic took it as Sìne and Ireland took it as Sìne and Sinéad. Gaelic orthography is not transparent to English readers, so from the nineteenth century onward Gaelic names were routinely respelled phonetically for English use — Sinéad to Shinade, Sìne to Sheena, Siobhán to Shevaun. Sheena spread through the English-speaking world in the twentieth century and reached its American peak in the mid-1980s.
Meaning
God is gracious
Through Sìne, the Gaelic form of the French Jeanne, which is the feminine of Jean — John. The root is the Hebrew Yohanan, 'the Lord is gracious'. The chain is long but every link in it is documented.
How the name formed
- Yohanan
- Jeanne
- Sìne
- Sheena
Related forms: Sìne · Sinéad · Jeanne · Jane
Pronouncing Sheena
SHEE-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The whole point of the spelling is that it removes the guesswork the Gaelic original creates for English readers.
Nicknames for Sheena
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 19853,062 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #80reached in 1984
- Change vs 2023
- +8.3%13 in 2025, from 12
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.
Sheena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sìne in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Sinéad in Irish — related form
- Jeanne in French — related form
- Jane in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Sheenas among us
people named Sheena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Sheena
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 Regina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sheena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Regina climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Regina's path sketches the road Sheena is walking now.
Sheena 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
Sheena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sheena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a real Gaelic name with a documented chain back to the Hebrew, not an invented sound.
- The English spelling is entirely phonetic, which the Gaelic one is not.
- It connects to a large family — Jane, Jean, Jeanne, Sinéad — without sounding like any of them.
- The Gaelic spelling Sìne is the historically correct one, and some bearers prefer it.
- In America the name is closely associated with the 1980s.
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What they receive
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Sheena
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sheenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 21,500 people named Sheena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sheena in 2025?
- Sheena ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sheena?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Sheena — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sheena with classmates?
- Sheena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sheena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sheena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sheena and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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