Shomari
Masculine
Shomari is given to both — 1,129 boys and 71 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Roots aired over eight consecutive nights in January 1977 and was watched by an audience the television industry has never seen since. The name peaks that year. So do a whole cohort of African and African-derived names, which makes 1977 one of the most legible single years in the American record.
How old is the name Shomari?
Shomari first appears in US birth records in 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Shomari alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,100 people named Shomari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shomari most popular?
Shomari peaked in 1977, reaching #1515 nationally. Today it ranks #8910, 7,395 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Shomari
Alex Haley's Roots was broadcast in January 1977 to a cumulative audience estimated at over a hundred million, and its effect on American naming was immediate and measurable. African and African-derived names rise sharply in the 1977 and 1978 birth cohorts, and the effect is sharpest for names that had been almost absent before. Kunta itself appears. So do a wide range of Swahili and pseudo-Swahili forms, supplied by a generation of American name books published in the early 1970s that presented lists of African names with English glosses. Some of those glosses are accurate and many are not, and they have been copied between books for fifty years without anyone checking them against a dictionary. That is worth saying plainly, because the honest position on a name like this is that the year is documented and the meaning is not.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Shomari has no verified meaning. It is listed in American name books as Swahili for forceful or firm, but the gloss does not correspond to any standard Swahili word and appears to have entered circulation through those books rather than from the language. Swahili has borrowed heavily from Arabic, so a genuine Arabic source is possible and undemonstrated. The peak is 1977.
Pronouncing Shomari
shoh-MAH-ree
Three syllables, stress on the second. Swahili stresses the penultimate syllable as a rule, which matches this pattern.
Nicknames for Shomari
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 boys named
- 199255 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1515reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- +14.3%8 in 2025, 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.
Shomari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shamari in English — spelling variant
- Shomar in English — related form
Shomaris among us
people named Shomari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 213,510 born in 2025 was named Shomari
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 Thayne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shomari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Thayne climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Thayne's path sketches the road Shomari is walking now.
Shomari 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
Shomari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shomari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three syllables with an even, open rhythm.
- Every sound in it exists in English.
- Its American history is datable to a single year.
- The Swahili gloss circulating in name books is not verifiable.
- Shamari and Shomari are easily confused.
- The 1977 peak dates it very precisely.
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What they receive
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Shomari
Masculine · #8910 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shomaris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Shomari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shomari in 2025?
- Shomari ranks #8910 among US boy names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shomari?
- About 1 in every 213,510 US boys born in 2025 was named Shomari — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shomari with classmates?
- Shomari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shomari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Davie#8910 · Ned#8910 · Darious#8910 · Alois#8910 · Len#8910 · Barton#8910 · Desmon#8910 · Winfield#8910
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shomari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shomari and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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