Shemar
Masculine
Shemar is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,376 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Shemar barely exists in the record before 1994 and climbs steeply afterwards. A daytime serial introduced an actor of that name that year, and the curve follows his visibility almost exactly, peaking in 2001 — the shape of a name lifted by one person.
How old is the name Shemar?
Shemar first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Shemar alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 2,300 people named Shemar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shemar most popular?
Shemar peaked in 2001, reaching #594 nationally. Today it ranks #7679, 7,085 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Shemar
The signature of a single-person effect in naming data is a name that was effectively absent, rises sharply within two or three years of one person becoming visible, and then declines as that visibility fades. Shemar has it cleanly. There are only a handful of entries in the American figures before 1994; the rise begins that year, and the peak comes in 2001. Compare it with a name that rises because a sound is in fashion, which climbs slowly over fifteen years, carries a dozen spellings, and peaks alongside its rhymes. Shemar has almost no spelling variants, which is another mark of the same thing: when a name is copied from a specific person, families copy the spelling too, because they are copying a name rather than a sound.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No documented meaning. Shemar is an American formation, most likely on She- or Shem- with the -mar ending, both productive. A connection to Hebrew shamar, to guard or keep, is sometimes offered and is not supported by any documented line of descent. The name has no established reading.
Pronouncing Shemar
shuh-MAR
Two syllables, stress on the second, with the first reduced. Some families say SHEE-mar with front stress; the majority pronunciation follows the actor.
Nicknames for Shemar
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
- 1994
- Most boys named
- 2001335 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #594reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%10 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.
Shemar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shemarr in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, Illinois, New York.
Shemars among us
people named Shemar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 170,808 born in 2025 was named Shemar
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 Cedrick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shemar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cedrick climbed just as high around 1978, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cedrick's path sketches the road Shemar is walking now.
Shemar 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
Shemar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shemar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is read correctly on sight with nothing silent.
- Shem and Mar are usable short forms.
- It has almost no competing spellings, which is unusual.
- It is closely tied to one performer and one decade.
- There is no meaning to give behind the name.
- The stress placement varies between families.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Shemar
Masculine · #7679 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shemars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Shemar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shemar in 2025?
- Shemar ranks #7679 among US boy names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shemar?
- About 1 in every 170,808 US boys born in 2025 was named Shemar — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shemar with classmates?
- Shemar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shemar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Early#7679 · Obie#7679 · Huston#7679 · Knute#7679 · Rance#7679 · Blain#7679 · Doyle#7679 · Millard#7679
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shemar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shemar and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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