The Sheikh surname
In the 2010 U.S. Census, 6,462 people carried this name — #5,384 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 45,700 people counted. That is up 74% from 3,724 in 2000.
In Switzerland’s population statistics
375 people named Sheikh live in Switzerland.
They live in 17 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, most of all in Zurich.
Where it concentrates, on the mapWhere they live today
Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), «Surnames of the permanent resident population by canton», 2025, opendata.swiss/en/dataset/nachnamen-der-standigen-wohnbevolkerung-nach-kanton3 · names with fewer than 3 bearers in a canton are not published.
In Belgium’s population register
At least 265 people named Sheikh live in Belgium.
Statbel only publishes a name in a municipality when five or more people there share it, so the real number is higher. Most of them live in Brussels-Capital.
Where it concentrates, on the mapWhere they live today
Statbel (Statistics Belgium), family names of the population by municipality, 1 January 2026 — CC BY 4.0.
In France’s civil register
France’s register of deaths holds 32 people named Sheikh.
Most of them — 29 — were born outside France. Those born in France came from 2 départements, most often Paris.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they were born
Fichier des personnes décédées, INSEE — Licence Ouverte 2.0 · deaths recorded in France since 1970, by place of birth.
In the Nordic population registers
1,036 people named Sheikh are counted in Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published. Norway publishes only surnames with 200 or more bearers. Finland counts its citizens, at home or abroad.
Counted, by country
Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown) · Statistics Norway (SSB, ssb.no), table 12891, 2025 — CC BY 4.0 · Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV), Finland, surname statistics, August 2026 — CC BY 4.0.
In Scotland’s registers today
Sheikh was recorded 20 times in Scotland’s registers of births, marriages and deaths in 2025.
That made it the 1147th most common name in those registers, shared with others on the same count. Each birth counts the child’s surname, each marriage both partners’ and each death the surname of the person who died — a yearly count of registrations, not of the people who live in Scotland.
National Records of Scotland, «Most Common Surnames, 2025» (published 26 May 2026): every surname recorded 10 or more times in the 2025 registers, and the series from 1975 · different spellings are counted separately — © Crown copyright 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
In print
Sheikh in American newspapers,
1881.
Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain · 2 pages in all carry the name.
In print
Sheikh in Australian newspapers,
1880s–1990s.
49 articles name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Sheikh. The most, 8, date from the 1880s.
Articles, by state
Trove, National Library of Australia (trove.nla.gov.au) · articles in its digitised newspapers that name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Sheikh.
Who carried it
People named Sheikh,
with a public archive behind them.
-
Mohamed Sheikh 1941–2022 · entrepreneur
Wikidata (CC0) · 10 lives in all are documented under this name.
In the public record
People named Sheikh,
in the records of 2 countries.
Soldiers, farmers, migrants and neighbours who carried the name and left a trace in public archives. Everyone shown here died long ago or was born more than a century ago.
United States3 records
-
Example: U.S. alien registration card, 1940s Alien registration Abdulhaq K. SheikhBorn 1918 in Rohri, India. Entered the United States at Boston in 1947. Listed in the U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955.
U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain) -
Example: U.S. alien registration card, 1940s Alien registration Iran SheikhBorn 1919 in Tehran, Iran. Entered the United States at New York in 1948. Listed in the U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955.
U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain) -
Example: U.S. alien registration card, 1940s Alien registration Said SheikhBorn 1915 in India. Listed in the U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955.
U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain)
Counts: U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form AR-3, photo by Bobjgalindo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Australia1 record
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Example: burial register, 1858 Burial record Khursheed SheikhDied 1984; buried at Gungahlin Cemetery, Canberra, ACT.
ACT Government, Transport Canberra and City Services (CC BY 4.0)
Counts: ACT Government, Transport Canberra and City Services (CC BY 4.0). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Burial register of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, 1858, National Library of Wales (CC0).
Nearby in the index
Surnames next to Sheikh.
- Shedd 3,868 · U.S. census
- Sheehan 26,902 · U.S. census
- Sheehy 4,782 · U.S. census
- Sheets 21,384 · U.S. census
- Sheffer 3,692 · U.S. census
- Sheffield 19,738 · U.S. census
- Shelby 12,303 · U.S. census
- Sheldon 19,339 · U.S. census
- Shell 13,369 · U.S. census
- Shelley 14,300 · U.S. census
- Shelly 5,134 · U.S. census
- Shelton 90,517 · U.S. census
When the index is not enough
This page says where Sheikh is.
A volume says what happened to it.
Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.