Sho

given name · Latin script

Meaning, in Japanese: The hiragana syllable しょ (sho) or the katakana syllable ショ (sho) in Hepburn romanization

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ʃoʊ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Sho is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.

rarermore common
  • EGEgypt≈1 in 1.9M(inferred from the name graph)
  • USUnited States1 in 499K
  • JOJordan≈1 in 857K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

667 people, 2020

Sources
23 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 499K (inferred from the name graph)

United States

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

The hiragana syllable しょ (sho) or the katakana syllable ショ (sho) in Hepburn romanization.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

How Sho is read(measured from records)

Sho is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • Japanese67%

    The hiragana syllable しょ (sho) or the katakana syllable ショ (sho) in Hepburn romanization.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • Arabic13%

    No dictionary in our sources glosses Sho in Arabic.

  • English8.1%

    Pronunciation spelling of sure.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Sho 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.

Where Sho is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States—6671 in 499K578Sho15
EG Egypt#983≈55 est.≈1 in 1.9M—Sho23
JO Jordan—≈13 est.≈1 in 857K—Sho5
PL Poland—111 in 3.5M11——
SE Sweden—111 in 928K11——
LY Libya—≈6 est.≈1 in 1.1M—Sho3

667 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; dane.gov.pl — PESEL given names (first + second name position, 2026-01-20); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Sho is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English given name12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Malaysia

    Languages: English, Dutch

    Also written Shó, Sho', Shō, Shô, Shö

  • Hindi given name24 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Bangladesh, United States, Malaysia

    Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Urdu

    Also written Show, Sow, SHoo, Shov, Shö

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group

    Also written Shō

  • Spanish given name7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, Argentina, Mexico

    Languages: Spanish, French

    Also written Shô, Shö, Ṧȟố, Şho, Shõ

48 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Sho is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In enm, alternative form of sche

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Italian, sho (Greek letter)

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Spanish, shush!, hush!

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In ss, to say

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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)

1850190019502000Akiko Yosano, b. 1878Show Ayanocozey, b. 1979Sho Sakurai, b. 1982Shō Aoyagi, b. 1985Shō Karino, b. 1987Sho Ito, b. 1988Shō Yakumaru, b. 1990Sho Inagaki, b. 1991Sho Kagami, b. 1994Shō Hirano, b. 1997

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)

Informalこんにちは、ShoさんHi Sho, (English)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 29 sources across 16 countries.

Official registers attesting Sho
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020194#99,694
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010175#102,688
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000125#126,400
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—1#79,961
US United Stateswru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.)———

Reference works 4

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • Ismlar.com — Uzbek given-name dictionary (meanings, gender, origin)

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 Sho mean, and where does it come from?
The hiragana syllable しょ (sho) or the katakana syllable ショ (sho) in Hepburn romanization. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
What are other forms of the name Sho?
In the etymology graph, Shou is a form of the same name in other languages.
How do you pronounce Sho?
A machine transcription gives /ʃoʊ/ (IPA) for Japanese.
Is Sho a male or female name?
Sho is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
In which country does Sho have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 667 people named Sho, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sho.
Where is Sho most common?
Sho is densest in the United States, where the national register counts about 1 in 499 thousand people carrying it.
How common is the name Sho?
In the United States, the national register counted 667 people named Sho in 2020, about 1 in 499 thousand residents.
How common is Sho compared with other names?
In Egypt, Sho is the 983rd most common given name of 107,792 given names recorded there.

What do you want to know about Sho?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/sho

The 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, “Sho” — the 983rd most common given name in Egypt. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Sho parses inside a full name →