Shani

Where Shani comes from

Shani hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1962
    First appearance
    #5,860 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1969
    Peak, #664
    223 babies named Shani — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1980
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,260.
  4. 1982
    Shani Davis born
    American speed skater
  5. 1995
    Shani Tarashaj born
    Swiss association football player
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Shani Davis · American speed skater, born 1982
  • Shani Tarashaj · Swiss association football player, born 1995
  • Shani Louk · German-Israeli tattoo artist who was killed in the October 7 attacks, 2001–2023
  • Shani Wallis · English-American actress, born 1933
  • Shani Bakanov · Israeli rhythmic gymnast, born 2006

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.