Shepherd is the English occupational surname for a "sheep herder" or "shepherd", from the Old English sceap, sheep, and hierde, herdsman. For Christian families it carries the image of the Good Shepherd, and as a first name it joins the recent run of occupational surnames such as Mason, Cooper and Sawyer. Shepherd entered the US top 1000 in 2016 and has climbed fast, from number 1109 in 2015 to number 246 among boys' names in 2025, its highest rank so far.