Shaikh
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Alternative spelling of sheik
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/ˈʃeɪk/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Shaikh is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in India than in any other country, where it is the 22nd most common surname.
- KWKuwait≈1 in 812(inferred from the name graph)
- SASaudi Arabia≈1 in 1.4K
- BDBangladesh≈1 in 441as Sheikh
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Shaikh itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- India (measured from records)
- #130 (measured from records)
- 7 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 319 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 812 (inferred from the name graph)
2,562,935 named Sekh
of 19M surnames
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Kuwait, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Sheikh in PK Pakistan, BD Bangladesh and Sekh in SA Saudi Arabia, KW Kuwait.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Alternative spelling of sheik.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Where in the world(measured from records)
Shaikh counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | #22 | 2,562,935as Sekh | 1 in 517 | 2.6M | Shaikh | 275 |
| PK Pakistan | #76 | ≈420,000 est. | ≈1 in 559 | 1 | Sheikh | 140 |
| BD Bangladesh | #25 | ≈370,000 est. | ≈1 in 441 | listed | Sheikh | 134 |
| SA Saudi Arabia | #254 | ≈24,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | listed | Sekh | 36 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 16K | — | Shaikh | 31 |
| AE United Arab Emirates | #217 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 886 | — | Shaikh | 54 |
| KW Kuwait | #302 | ≈3,700 est. | ≈1 in 812 | — | Sekh | 11 |
2,562,935 people counted by Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls, counting the spelling sekh. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) — Form-33 List of Contesting Candidates, 2018 General Election. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Shaikh is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Arabic, chief; experienced man; old man
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
chief; elder;
as a nameMuslim baby names (our 2,000 meaningful and beautiful names for boys and girls) English-Urdu with Roman
In Arabic, title of a political or spiritual leader; chief, head, old man
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Anwar Shaikhb. 1945PKPakistani American economist
- Badruddin Shaikhb. 1952INIndian politician
- Younus Shaikhb. 1952PKPakistani activist
- Shamima Shaikhb. 1960ZASouth African feminist (1960–1998)
- Zaib Shaikhb. 1974CACanadian actor
- Faisal Shaikhb. 1977INcricketer
- Mumtaz Shaikhb. 1981INwomen's rights activist
- Mim ShaikhBroadcaster
- Mona Shaikhactress
- Alanna ShaikhEGglobal health and development specialist
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 44 sources across 23 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IN India | Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls | — | 20K | #604 |
| IN India | Instate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls | — | 17K | #4 |
Reference works 5
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Shaikh mean, and where does it come from?
- Alternative spelling of sheik. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- How do you pronounce Shaikh?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈʃeɪk/ (IPA) for Hindi.
- What are other forms of the name Shaikh?
- In the etymology graph, Sheik is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Shaikh have the most bearers?
- In India, the national register counted about 2.6 million people named Sekh, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Shaikh?
- In India, the national register counted 2,562,935 people named Sekh, about 1 in 517 residents.
- How common is Shaikh compared with other names?
- In India, Shaikh is the 22nd most common surname of 1,492,515 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Shaikh?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/shaikhThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Shaikh” — the 22nd most common surname in India. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.