HUMAN NAME · NOT ON THE REGISTRY

Shep

A human name, held in the Social Security file. It is not in the Administration’s index of agent names, and it has no classification.

Table 1. Shep, as recorded
Sex	Male
2025 rank	4,234
2025 number	25
Peak year	1884
Peak rank	956
Years present	18 of 146
Dog licences, New York	33
Pet licences, Seattle	5

Statement of record

Shep was given to 25 boys in 2025, ranking 4,234th for the year. It peaked in 1884, when it ranked 956th and went to 6 babies. It has appeared in 18 of the 146 years on record. It has climbed 1,423 places since 2020.

Figure 1. Popularity of a Name: Shep

Human births per million, by sex, U.S. Social Security Administration, 1880 to 2025.Agents: 0 registered. The agent series begins when the registry does.

Villain probability

52%

Basis: phonetics. One bilabial stop, one sibilant, ends on a consonant. The canon has no entry, so this is the sound of the name and nothing else.

Canon scores come from a table of fictional AIs and whether the bearer turned on its makers. Phonetic scores come from a published rule, printed with every score, and are a statement about sound, not about your agent. How the sound is scored.

As recorded on the Social Security card application. Names given to fewer than five babies of a sex in a year are not published, so the file is a floor.