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Shai vs Alexander

How Shai and Alexander compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Shai

Male · Irish

Meaning: Variant Of Shea Courteous.

Alexander

Male · Greek

Meaning: Defender Of Man

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Shai (boys) vs Alexander (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Shai Alexander
Peak year (most US births) 2023 — 224 boys 1993 — 20,529 boys
Peak rank #981 #21
Most recent rank (2023) #981 (224 births) #30 (7,230 births)
Total US births since 1880 224 657,737
Last 10 years (2014–2023) 224 100,533

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Alexander reached 20,529 US births in 1993 — 20,305 more than Shai's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Shai — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 New Jersey #602 48
2 Maryland #611 34
3 New York #629 155
4 Massachusetts #745 19
5 Virginia #753 28

Alexander — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 California #10 14,894
2 Arizona #10 2,337
3 Illinois #10 4,042
4 Nevada #11 990
5 Florida #11 6,338

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →