Shan

Used for both boys and girlsStatistical record

What official birth registration shows about Shan: which national registrars published it, in which years, and how its recorded position changed.

No researched meaning, origin or pronunciation yet — what that means.

Shan: Recorded since 1996, its highest recorded position is #414, reached in 2022.

2registrars recorded it
44times a registrar ranked it
27years from first to last
#414highest recorded position
6groupings it qualifies for

Region

Falling

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2022

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#3795
1997	#2738
1998	#3848
2000	#2746
2001	#3262
2003	#4373
2004	#3197
2005	#3382
2006	#5061
2007	#4294
2008	#4524
2009	#3422
2010	#4688
2011	#4764
2012	#4838
2013	#4739
2014	#5691
2017	#4063
2018	#4684
2019	#4001
2020	#4535
2022	#4645

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

FallingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in England and Wales in 22 of the 27 years from 1996 to 2022.

Official data from 2 national registrars across 2 regions, 1996–2022 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1996
First recorded at #3795 among girls in England and Wales in 1996 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
England and Wales · Girls
Most recent2022
Most recently recorded at #4645 among girls in England and Wales, in 2022.
England and Wales · Girls

Shan appears in 2 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, which has ranked it in 22 years beginning in 1996, and has registered 91 births with the name.

Shan across 2 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Shan's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
England and Wales · Girls	#3795 (1996)	#2738 (1997)	#4645 (2022)	22 of 27	91 (1996–2022)	6 (2009)
England and Wales · Boys	#1765 (1996)	#1642 (1998)	#4608 (2020)	21 of 25	116 (1996–2020)	8 (2003)

Shan by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Shan in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	11	3 of 10	4
2000sbusiest	39	9 of 10	4
2010s	33	8 of 10	4
2020s	8	2 of 10	4

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2000s were its busiest decade — the 9 years of it this list covers, averaging 4 births a year.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Shan appears in

Groupings this name qualifies for under their own stated rules, from the same official statistics shown above.

Popularity data

Official popularity data is available for 2 regions, from 1996 to 2022. Highest recorded position: #414 in Northern Ireland in 2022.

Shan's recorded popularity observations by year, region and administrative category, including rank, registered births, source confidence and when each region's data was last reviewed.
Year	Region	Category	Rank	Births registered	Confidence	Status
2022	England and Wales	female	#4645	4	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	female	#4535	4	High	Verified
2020	England and Wales	male	#4608	3	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	female	#4001	5	High	Verified
2019	England and Wales	male	#3937	4	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	female	#4684	4	High	Verified
2018	England and Wales	male	#3011	6	High	Verified
2017	England and Wales	female	#4063	5	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	female	#5691	3	High	Verified
2014	England and Wales	male	#3895	4	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	female	#4739	4	High	Verified
2013	England and Wales	male	#3822	4	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	female	#4838	4	High	Verified
2012	England and Wales	male	#3987	4	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	female	#4764	4	High	Verified
2011	England and Wales	male	#2390	8	High	Verified
2010	England and Wales	female	#4688	4	High	Verified
2010	England and Wales	male	#2400	8	High	Verified
2009	England and Wales	female	#3422	6	High	Verified
2009	England and Wales	male	#2544	7	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	female	#4524	4	High	Verified
2008	England and Wales	male	#2276	8	High	Verified
2007	England and Wales	female	#4294	4	High	Verified
2007	England and Wales	male	#2211	8	High	Verified
2006	England and Wales	female	#5061	3	High	Verified
2006	England and Wales	male	#2870	5	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	female	#3382	5	High	Verified
2005	England and Wales	male	#3208	4	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	female	#3197	5	High	Verified
2004	England and Wales	male	#2578	5	High	Verified
2003	England and Wales	female	#4373	3	High	Verified
2003	England and Wales	male	#1771	8	High	Verified
2001	England and Wales	female	#3262	4	High	Verified
2001	England and Wales	male	#3134	3	High	Verified
2000	England and Wales	female	#2746	5	High	Verified
2000	England and Wales	male	#1703	7	High	Verified
1999	England and Wales	male	#2943	3	High	Verified
1998	England and Wales	female	#3848	3	High	Verified
1998	England and Wales	male	#1642	7	High	Verified
1997	England and Wales	female	#2738	5	High	Verified
1997	England and Wales	male	#2337	4	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	female	#3795	3	High	Verified
1996	England and Wales	male	#1765	6	High	Verified
2022	Northern Ireland	male	#414	3	High	Verified

England and Wales hub — collected by Office for National Statistics
Northern Ireland hub — collected by NISRA

See methodology and data sources for how popularity data is collected and what "confidence" means.

What the record shows

Recorded by 2 registrars between 1996 and 2022, ranked in 23 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #414, first reached in 2022.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 8 births, registered in England and Wales in 2003.

1 registrar publishes it in more than one category list, holding a place in each for at least five years — an observation about those lists rather than about the name.

Its record falls into 4 separate stretches, with a longest absence of 2 years.

A second registrar first ranked it in 2022, and 26 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Shamsa · #1319, 18y
Shamus · #292, 19y
Shana · #377, 29y
Shanaya · #448, 29y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 2 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Tudor · #414, 27y
Abbigail · #413, 27y
Karys · #413, 21y
Minahil · #413, 25y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Aslan · #414, 20y
Ikra · #414, 26y
Oreoluwa · #414, 29y
Patsy · #414, 29y

Shan was ranked #414 in Northern Ireland · Boys in 2022. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Shan and the names beside it

Two names in the same published list are measured on the same scale, in the same year, by the same registrar — so these are positions that genuinely passed each other, not a similarity judgement. Drawn from the 2,573 names with a recorded popularity standing (common, familiar, uncommon), so a name outside that set could have passed Shan without appearing here.

Shan moved ahead of

Graeme Compare
In 2008 they stood at #2870 and #2870 in England and Wales · Boys; by 2009 that had become #2544 and #4527.
Kristine Compare
In 2016 they stood at #5691 and #4684 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2017 that had become #4063 and #5765.
Carol Compare
In 2018 they stood at #4684 and #4684 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2019 that had become #4001 and #5591.
Kirsten Compare
In 2018 they stood at #4684 and #1977 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2019 that had become #4001 and #5591.

Moved ahead of Shan

Ezra Compare
In 2013 they stood at #4739 and #5742 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2014 that had become #5691 and #1628.
Hayden Compare
In 2006 they stood at #3382 and #3970 in England and Wales · Girls; by 2007 that had become #4294 and #1741.
Ole Compare
In 2018 they stood at #3011 and #3959 in England and Wales · Boys; by 2019 that had become #3937 and #1745.
Hans Compare
In 2013 they stood at #3822 and #4685 in England and Wales · Boys; by 2014 that had become #3895 and #1819.

Moved the opposite way to Shan

Blake Compare
Between 1997 and 2022 in England and Wales · Girls, Shan went from #2738 to #4645 while Blake went from #3824 to #382.
Ezra Compare
Between 1997 and 2022 in England and Wales · Girls, Shan went from #2738 to #4645 while Ezra went from #3824 to #1215.
Albie Compare
Between 1996 and 2020 in England and Wales · Boys, Shan went from #1765 to #4608 while Albie went from #853 to #35.
Alfie Compare
Between 1996 and 2020 in England and Wales · Boys, Shan went from #1765 to #4608 while Alfie went from #119 to #18.

Moved the same way as Shan

Cecilie Compare
Between 1997 and 2022 in England and Wales · Girls, Shan went from #2738 to #4645 and Cecilie from #3824 to #5669.
Aaron Compare
Between 1996 and 2020 in England and Wales · Boys, Shan went from #1765 to #4608 and Aaron from #33 to #120.
Adam Compare
Between 1996 and 2020 in England and Wales · Boys, Shan went from #1765 to #4608 and Adam from #16 to #34.
Alan Compare
Between 1996 and 2020 in England and Wales · Boys, Shan went from #1765 to #4608 and Alan from #163 to #298.

What's not yet available

Meaning
Origin
Pronunciation
Nicknames and spelling variants

Absence from this list does not mean the name isn't genuinely meaningful or widely used — only that Namewise hasn't sourced and reviewed that content yet. Absence from a specific year or geography above does not prove zero use there either; official statistics only publish names above a minimum threshold.

Official popularity data is available for 2 regions, from 1996 to 2022. Highest recorded position: #414 in Northern Ireland in 2022. Source data last verified 2026-07-22.

Shan

Shan at a glance

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Shan across 2 official records

Shan by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Shan appears in

Popularity data

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Shan

Shan and the names beside it

Shan moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Shan

Moved the opposite way to Shan

Moved the same way as Shan

Shan at a glance

Shan across 2 official records

Shan by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Shan appears in

What the record shows

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Names published alongside Shan

Shan and the names beside it

Shan moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Shan

Moved the opposite way to Shan

Moved the same way as Shan