Shea
- Pronunciation
- [Shea]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Majestic
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Shea
Shea is an Irish name, an Anglicized form of the Gaelic surname Ó Séaghdha, often interpreted as "majestic" or "stately," "hawk-like" or "fortunate." Like many Irish surnames it crossed into use as a given name, valued for its sleek, single-syllable sound and its easy fit on children of any gender. The simple spelling belies a long Gaelic lineage and a quietly noble meaning, giving the name both modern polish and ancestral depth.
The name sits within an unusually rich family of phonetic spellings. Recorded variants include Shae, Shai, Shay, and Shaye, along with the extended Shaylon, a cluster that shows how readily this bright, breezy sound lent itself to personalization. The brevity of the core name makes nicknames unnecessary, while the variants offer plenty of room for individual style and a softer or more elaborate look.
In the United States, Shea appeared as a boys' name in the Social Security top-1000 from 2000 through 2006, reaching its best rank of #783 in 2002. It stood at #984 in 2006, its final charted year, having accounted for roughly 1,343 births across that span. That concentrated early-2000s presence gives Shea a crisp, contemporary feel anchored by its old Irish roots — a short, distinctive name that wears its heritage lightly and reads as fresh and confident even today.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Shea
US Popularity History (2000–2008)
Annual US births named Shea by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2005 with 348 girls named Shea (girl rank #764 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2008, ranked #966 for girls (278 US births). That's 202 places below its 2005 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Shea Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Shea the strongest states are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | #306 | 184 |
| 2 | Connecticut | #435 | 75 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #438 | 177 |
| 4 | New York | #499 | 327 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #721 | 117 |
| 6 | Colorado | #728 | 24 |
| 7 | Illinois | #745 | 115 |
| 8 | Maryland | #745 | 22 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #934 | 16 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | #934 | 16 |
| 2 | Maryland | #745 | 22 |
| 3 | Illinois | #745 | 115 |
| 4 | Colorado | #728 | 24 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #721 | 117 |
| 6 | New York | #499 | 327 |
| 7 | New Jersey | #438 | 177 |
| 8 | Connecticut | #435 | 75 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | #306 | 184 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Shea in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Shea?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Shea to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Shea against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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