Given name & surname
Shen
“a spiritual man; one who is introspective”
Shen is used as a given name and a surname. One Chinese interpretation is “a spiritual man; one who is introspective.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Chinese interpretation is “a spiritual man; one who is introspective.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Chinese.
How it developed
In English usage, Shen as a surname developed from SCHOEN.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1975. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Shen through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 56
- 56 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2022
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 8 in 2022. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,124 as a first name in 2020; 18,330 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Shen’s family of names
In English usage, Shen as a surname developed from the German form SCHOEN. In English usage, Shen as a surname has a related form in SCHOEN.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 10
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Show 2 moreShow fewer
See also 2
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Shen
- Li ShenTang dynasty official and poet772–846
- Shen WeiChinese-born American choreographer, visual artist and director (born 1968)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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