Shela
Shela was last recorded in 2007, when 5 babies were given it; 1,398 Americans have been recorded with it between 1935 and 2007 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,170 Americans named Shela and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (84% of everyone recorded); the median is 59 years old and half are between 42 and 70.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shela by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shela?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #20,105, in 2007; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
44 babies in 1950, the peak
Shela peaked in 1950, when 44 girls were given it, #1,392 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5 | #20,105 | 2.6 |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,748 | 2.7 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,966 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,886 | 5.0 |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,621 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 5 | #16,512 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,484 | 6.2 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,664 | 4.6 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,334 | 8.6 |
| 1995 | 11 | #7,998 | 6.3 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 17 | #5,667 | 9.5 |
| 1993 | 13 | #6,983 | 7.2 |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,676 | 9.2 |
| 1991 | 22 | #4,621 | 11.7 |
| 1990 | 17 | #5,499 | 9.0 |
| 1989 | 22 | #4,340 | 11.9 |
| 1988 | 34 | #3,028 | 19.1 |
| 1987 | 31 | #3,083 | 17.8 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,925 | 9.3 |
| 1985 | 18 | #4,426 | 10.5 |
| 1984 | 14 | #5,171 | 8.3 |
| 1983 | 13 | #5,404 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,998 | 3.0 |
| 1981 | 13 | #5,529 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,361 | 8.1 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,164 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 18 | #4,036 | 11.7 |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,315 | 10.2 |
| 1975 | 21 | #3,383 | 14.4 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,288 | 7.5 |
| 1973 | 23 | #2,997 | 15.8 |
| 1972 | 23 | #2,964 | 15.1 |
| 1971 | 16 | #3,915 | 9.6 |
| 1970 | 30 | #2,509 | 17.2 |
| 1969 | 37 | #2,097 | 21.9 |
| 1968 | 29 | #2,284 | 17.7 |
| 1967 | 28 | #2,314 | 17.0 |
| 1966 | 36 | #1,948 | 21.3 |
| 1965 | 39 | #1,846 | 22.1 |
| 1964 | 36 | #2,001 | 19.0 |
| 1963 | 40 | #1,863 | 20.8 |
| 1962 | 32 | #2,106 | 16.3 |
| 1961 | 31 | #2,140 | 15.4 |
| 1960 | 29 | #2,186 | 14.3 |
| 1959 | 28 | #2,183 | 13.8 |
| 1958 | 34 | #1,897 | 16.9 |
| 1957 | 29 | #2,061 | 14.2 |
| 1956 | 29 | #2,046 | 14.4 |
| 1955 | 27 | #2,097 | 13.8 |
| 1954 | 30 | #1,940 | 15.4 |
| 1953 | 37 | #1,640 | 19.7 |
| 1952 | 33 | #1,739 | 17.8 |
| 1951 | 37 | #1,574 | 20.5 |
| 1950 | 44 | #1,392 | 25.7 |
| 1949 | 29 | #1,801 | 17.0 |
| 1948 | 26 | #1,894 | 15.3 |
| 1947 | 24 | #2,035 | 13.5 |
| 1946 | 26 | #1,800 | 16.5 |
| 1945 | 13 | #2,576 | 9.9 |
| 1944 | 15 | #2,378 | 11.3 |
| 1943 | 20 | #1,988 | 14.3 |
| 1942 | 14 | #2,525 | 10.4 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,901 | 5.8 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,929 | 8.7 |
| 1939 | 6 | #4,183 | 5.5 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,909 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,747 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 5 | #4,770 | 4.8 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,804 | 4.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shela a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shela has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 69 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shela: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shela, and how old are they?
1,170 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 84% of the 1,398 Americans ever recorded as Shela. The median Shela alive today is 59 years old; half are between 42 and 70.
The 2020 Census counted 1,769 people named Shela (1,765 women and girls, 4 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,239 born in the U.S. The Census count is 43% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 49 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 468 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 323 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 270 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 59 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 389,959 babies since 1880, Shela is the seventh most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 164 babies recorded by SSA was a Shela (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Shela
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 Shela and names like it
- Compare Shela and SheilaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sShela peaked in 1950.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shela since 1910.
- The top names of 1950The year the most babies were named Shela.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Shela alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with SMost given first.