Shepard

What Shepard means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Shepard yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note 268 US babies in 2025, but under 3 in England & Wales Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Shepard?

US: Rising: up from #1453 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2025, when 268 boys got the name (#891 that year). First in the US records in 1912.

How common

• About 1 in 6,373 baby boys in the US in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in OK (0.85 per 1,000 boys), AL (0.74 per 1,000 boys), MS (0.46 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Shepard is #891 in the US. It is not in the England & Wales list for 2025.

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Shepard were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

Other spellings

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Sheppard40 US
• Sheperd13 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Shepard

Boys

• Shepherd#246From the word “shepherd”^*
• Liam#1Form of William, meaning “will + helmet”^*
• Kai#93“warrior”^*
• Mateo#8Same root as Matthew, meaning “gift of the Lord”^*
• Crew#256“weir”^*
• Malakai#213Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #491 in 2015, #213 in 2025

For a sister

• Haven#190Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #190 vs #1,512 in 2025
• Luna#27“the moon”^*
• Eliza#115Editor’s note Up from #175 in 2015 to #115 in 2025 in the US
• Ellie#24Editor’s note Up from #48 in 2015 to #24 in 2025 in the US. About 1 in 260 US girls in the 2025 records
• River#219From the word “river”^*
• Noa#226Hawaiian, meaning “commoner, free man”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under where there are enough, topped up with common names whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Shepard’s. Place names are only included if they are in the top 300. Rank is US 2025.