Girl · #15,352 in 2026

Shahrzad

Sheherazade is the legendary narrator and central framing character of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African folktales compiled in Arabic between roughly the 8th and 14th centuries.

  • Persian
Current Rank
#15,352
Peak Rank
#5,427 (1979)
Total Babies
124
5-Yr Trend
Stable
1976
First Year
2001
Last Year
1979
Peak Year
#5427
Peak Rank
124
Total Count
16
Years Active

Meaning & Origin of Shahrzad

What this name means, where it came from, and how it has traveled across cultures.

Sheherazade is the legendary narrator and central framing character of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African folktales compiled in Arabic between roughly the 8th and 14th centuries.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0). Read more →

Cultural Origins (via Behind the Name)

  • Persian
Origin & history
Scheherazade and the sultan by Iranian painter Sani al Mulk (1849–1856) Marie-Éléonore Godefroid , Scheherazade and Shahryar , c. 1842 The earliest references to a work resembling Alf Layla wa-Layla appear in Arabic sources from the ninth century, which describe a collection of stories translated from a Middle Persian original known as Hazār Afsān (“A Thousand Stories”). No complete manuscript from this period survives, and the earliest extant Arabic manuscripts are fragmentary, dating from the ninth and tenth centuries. These early texts already employ a female storyteller as a framing device

The Story of Shahrzad

American parents first put Shahrzad on the record books as a baby girl name in 1976, with 5 registered babies. Its peak popularity came in 1979, when 12 Shahrzads were born — ranking #5,427 that year. About 52% of every Shahrzad on record arrived during the 1980s, its defining decade. Shahrzad last appeared in the published SSA data in 2001, with 5 recorded births — it has not charted nationally since. All told, over 124 Americans have carried the name since 1880, from the 1970s to the 2020s.

Popularity Over Time

Popularity by State

ME
WA
MT
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WI
MI
NY
VT
NH
MA
OR
ID
SD
IA
IL
IN
OH
PA
NJ
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RI
CA
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NE
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MD
DE
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Top 10
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No data

Variants & Related Forms of Shahrzad

Foreign forms, alternate spellings, and nicknames that share roots with Shahrzad. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.

Names that sound like Shahrzad

Phonetically similar names — useful when Shahrzad is the vibe but a different syllable count or letter feel might suit better. Linked entries have a profile on Peek a Name.

Source: Datamuse . Phonetic similarity ranking, not curated.

Frequently Asked Questions about Shahrzad

What does the name Shahrzad mean?
Sheherazade is the legendary narrator and central framing character of One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African folktales compiled in Arabic between roughly the 8th and 14th centuries.
What is the origin of the name Shahrzad?
Shahrzad has roots in the following cultural and linguistic traditions: Persian.
How popular is Shahrzad in 2026?
In 2026, Shahrzad ranks #15,352 among girls' names in the U.S., with 5 babies given the name that year.
When was Shahrzad most popular?
Shahrzad reached its peak popularity in 1979, ranking #5,427 that year with 12 babies given the name.
In which U.S. states is Shahrzad most popular?
Shahrzad has historically been most popular in California. Rankings vary year to year, but these states show the strongest concentration of births named Shahrzad.
Is Shahrzad a unisex name?
In U.S. Social Security records, Shahrzad is primarily a girl's name. We don't have meaningful data for it as a boy's name.
What names go well with Shahrzad?
Names that share a similar style or popularity range with Shahrzad include Raphael, Elizabth, Coren. These pairings are based on rank proximity and naming era in U.S. data.
What are nicknames or variants of Shahrzad?
Common variants and related forms of Shahrzad include Shahrazad. These cover foreign-language equivalents, alternate spellings, and short forms.

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About the name Shahrzad

Shahrzad is a girl baby name tracked by the U.S. Social Security Administration. It first appeared in SSA records in 1976 and has accumulated 124 births in the dataset. Shahrzad's peak popularity came in 1979 when it ranked #5,427. Use the chart and map above to compare Shahrzad's trajectory across years and U.S. states, or browse the related names section to discover similar choices.

Continue exploring

Data sources

  • Birth statistics (counts, ranks, years 1880–2026) — U.S. Social Security Administration . Predictions for years not yet released by SSA are computed by Peek a Name from historical trends; we update with official data as soon as it ships.
  • Etymology, cultural origins, and related forms — Behind the Name (used under their public API terms).
  • Meaning prose and editorial summary — Wikipedia article extracts, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 .
  • Predicted nationality distribution — Nationalize.io .
  • Phonetically similar names — Datamuse .

Peek a Name aggregates and presents the above data for informational purposes. Statistical predictions and external attributions are clearly labelled where shown; we make no guarantee of accuracy beyond what each source provides.