Shiloh: Meaning of Baby Name Shiloh

About the Name Shiloh

Shiloh descends from the Hebrew Shilo meaning "the one to whom it belongs" or "peace." The name has biblical anchoring through the iconic Shiloh in the Hebrew Bible — the iconic Israelite religious center where the Tabernacle and Ark of the Covenant were kept for over 300 years before the establishment of the First Temple in Jerusalem (c. 1050 BCE). The name appears in Genesis 49:10 as a prophetic name traditionally interpreted as referring to the Messiah.

The name has additional American Civil War anchoring through the iconic Battle of Shiloh (April 6–7, 1862) — one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, fought in southwestern Tennessee. The name's overwhelming modern cultural anchor is American celebrity child Shiloh Jolie-Pitt (Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, born 2006, the daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — anchoring the Shiloh name in 2000s American celebrity culture).

Other notable bearers include American basketball player Shiloh Steed; the contemporary fictional Shiloh of various contemporary novels including the iconic Phyllis Reynolds Naylor 1991 Newbery Medal-winning children's novel Shiloh. Shiloh's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2010 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name is also occasionally used for girls. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Hebrew-biblical-American-Civil-War pedigree, the strong Shiloh Jolie-Pitt American celebrity cultural anchor, and the popular two-syllable -loh ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to Hebrew-derived naming. The name reads as both classical-biblical and contemporary American. Common nicknames Shi (the dominant short form, casual and warm) and the rare Lo each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Shiloh, Shilo, and Shyloh have their own SSA tracking. International forms include the original Hebrew Shilo.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Shiloh

1,531

Hebrew baby names in our dictionary

695

Hebrew male names

322

6-letter S-names in our dictionary

691

S-male names total

2007–2025

years of US SSA records (19 total)

18,339

total US births named Shiloh (all years)

US Popularity History (2007–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Shiloh climbed 337 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#615 in 2020 → #278 in 2025).

Annual US births named Shiloh by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 1,220 boys named Shiloh (boy rank #278 that year).

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.

Where in the US Is Shiloh Most Popular?

Average boy-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 boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Shiloh the strongest states are Hawaii, Connecticut, Nevada.

Strongest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Hawaii	#177	33
2	Connecticut	#413	27
3	Nevada	#416	40
4	Oklahoma	#417	88
5	Mississippi	#440	25
6	Arkansas	#447	40
7	Oregon	#449	48
8	Utah	#459	43
9	Tennessee	#461	171
10	Kentucky	#467	60

Weakest boys-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	Minnesota	#694	64
2	Indiana	#655	84
3	Texas	#645	379
4	California	#640	447
5	Ohio	#620	168
6	Massachusetts	#611	45
7	Arizona	#606	75
8	Illinois	#600	105
9	Alabama	#579	50
10	New Jersey	#572	99

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Shiloh in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Variant Forms

Name	Meaning	Gender	Origin
Shilo	The One To Whom It Belongs. In The Bible Shiloh Is A Prophetic Name For The Messiah: Also Shiloh Is Significant As The Site Of A Crucial Battle In The American Civil War.	Male	Hebrew

Looking for names like Shiloh?

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Compare Shiloh to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Shiloh against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Shiloh vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014

Shiloh vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014

Shiloh vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014

Shiloh vs William 159,918 births since 2014

Shiloh vs James 157,850 births since 2014

Shiloh vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014

Shiloh vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014

Shiloh vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014

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