How rare is the name Shaniqua?

4,074 people in the United States have the first name Shaniqua, about 1 in 74,136. It ranks #4,532 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

SHANIQUA

#4,532

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
4,074
About
1 in 74,136
This common or more
84.2%
Who bears it

Of the 4,074 people named Shaniqua, 91.4% reported their origin as Black, 3.2% as two or more races and 2.9% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are female (99.9%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Shaniqua peaked in 1991, when 861 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
19712010
Peak year
1991
Births that year
861
In 2010
8 ▼99%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 5,117 babies have been given the name since 1971. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero.

Shaniqua by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1990s, when it ranked #1,181. The largest share of babies named Shaniqua, 85.1%, were born between 1981 and 1996, as millennials.

1970s#3,873326
1980s#2,0371,133
1990s#1,1813,525
2000s#14,040125
2010s#43,0268
Generation X 1965–808.2%
Millennials 1981–9685.1%
Generation Z 1997–126.7%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Shaniqua is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Shaniqua has been most common in South Carolina (3.6×), New York (3×), and Mississippi (2.7×), and least common in California (0.24×).

4,266 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Shaniqua

#4,530 Augustin · 4,076#4,531 Osiris · 4,075#4,533 Christophe · 4,073#4,534 Wilton · 4,071

Spelled almost the same

8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Shaniqua, most common first.

#4,240 Shanika · 4,484#8,064 Shanique · 1,823#9,644 Shanequa · 1,428#17,356 Sheniqua · 637#22,961 Shenequa · 430#25,575 Shanica · 370#30,234 Shanisha · 289#30,390 Shenique · 287

Compare