Shayla
Shayla was given to 113 girls in 2025, #1,793 among girls’ names; 30,950 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 30,300 Americans named Shayla and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shayla by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shayla mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shayla is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shayla?
#1,793 among girls’ names, 2025
Shayla fell from #797 in 2015 to #1,793 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.20 to 0.07 per 1,000.
1,188 babies in 1999, the peak
Shayla peaked in 1999, when 1,188 girls were given it, #267 among girls’ names. The 113 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 113 | #1,793 | 0.07 |
| 2024 | 112 | #1,807 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 130 | #1,611 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 140 | #1,538 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 160 | #1,378 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 197 | #1,181 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 195 | #1,202 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 218 | #1,128 | 0.13 |
| 2017 | 242 | #1,064 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 270 | #986 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (72)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 354 | #797 | 0.20 |
| 2014 | 375 | #749 | 0.21 |
| 2013 | 429 | #667 | 0.24 |
| 2012 | 473 | #606 | 0.27 |
| 2011 | 577 | #509 | 0.33 |
| 2010 | 694 | #445 | 0.39 |
| 2009 | 802 | #393 | 0.44 |
| 2008 | 964 | #347 | 0.51 |
| 2007 | 1,028 | #324 | 0.53 |
| 2006 | 1,004 | #330 | 0.53 |
| 2005 | 815 | #386 | 0.44 |
| 2004 | 919 | #348 | 0.50 |
| 2003 | 999 | #309 | 0.55 |
| 2002 | 975 | #314 | 0.54 |
| 2001 | 1,052 | #297 | 0.58 |
| 2000 | 1,009 | #312 | 0.56 |
| 1999 | 1,188 | #267 | 0.67 |
| 1998 | 992 | #307 | 0.56 |
| 1997 | 1,041 | #279 | 0.60 |
| 1996 | 1,054 | #276 | 0.60 |
| 1995 | 846 | #323 | 0.48 |
| 1994 | 811 | #330 | 0.45 |
| 1993 | 831 | #319 | 0.46 |
| 1992 | 865 | #317 | 0.47 |
| 1991 | 851 | #317 | 0.45 |
| 1990 | 799 | #337 | 0.42 |
| 1989 | 710 | #363 | 0.39 |
| 1988 | 676 | #361 | 0.38 |
| 1987 | 583 | #394 | 0.34 |
| 1986 | 548 | #405 | 0.32 |
| 1985 | 556 | #407 | 0.32 |
| 1984 | 520 | #408 | 0.31 |
| 1983 | 533 | #405 | 0.32 |
| 1982 | 506 | #434 | 0.30 |
| 1981 | 492 | #432 | 0.29 |
| 1980 | 441 | #477 | 0.27 |
| 1979 | 302 | #597 | 0.19 |
| 1978 | 315 | #554 | 0.21 |
| 1977 | 326 | #545 | 0.21 |
| 1976 | 179 | #791 | 0.12 |
| 1975 | 108 | #1,092 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 79 | #1,342 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 68 | #1,441 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 74 | #1,363 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 164 | #841 | 0.10 |
| 1970 | 34 | #2,298 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 29 | #2,442 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 21 | #2,854 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 15 | #3,451 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 13 | #3,708 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 13 | #3,704 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 19 | #2,985 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 7 | #5,790 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 13 | #3,742 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,488 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,721 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 8 | #4,836 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,892 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,678 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,649 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 8 | #4,535 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,986 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shayla a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shayla has been given almost only to girls: 17 boys in 72 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shayla: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shayla, and how old are they?
30,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 30,950 Americans ever recorded as Shayla. The median Shayla alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 26,260 people named Shayla (26,206 women and girls, 54 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 29,690 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 86 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,060 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 10,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 14,400 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,920 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Shayla born?
The states with the most babies named Shayla are Texas, California and New York, with 48% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #2,022 | 0.7× |
| California | 10 | #2,066 | 0.6× |
| New York | 9 | #1,511 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,859 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,260 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 7 | #1,023 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 7 | #1,021 | 0.8× |
| Arizona | 5 | #1,197 | 0.8× |
Where Shayla is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shayla is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1950 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Shayla with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 46,603 babies since 1880, Shayla is the most given (66% of them). In 2025 it was given to 113 of their 197 babies (57%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Shayla
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Shayla and names like it
- Compare Shayla and ShayleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShayla peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shayla since 1910.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Shayla.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Shayla alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.