Shelba
Shelba was last recorded in 1982, when 7 babies were given it; 2,141 Americans have been recorded with it between 1935 and 1982 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,060 Americans named Shelba and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (50% of everyone recorded); the median is 82 years old and half are between 70 and 87.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shelba by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shelba?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #9,048, in 1982; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
349 babies in 1937, the peak
Shelba peaked in 1937, when 349 babies were given it (344 girls, #341 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 7 | #9,048 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,307 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,986 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,982 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,819 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,540 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,536 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #7,139 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,493 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 8 | #5,561 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (43)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | 17 | #3,185 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 15 | #3,377 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,725 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 16 | #3,358 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 21 | #2,765 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 16 | #3,275 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 19 | #2,934 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 20 | #2,805 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 30 | #2,099 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 31 | #2,019 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 36 | #1,837 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 21 | #2,519 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 42 | #1,593 | 0.02 |
| 1954 | 24 | #2,225 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 15 | #2,908 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 32 | #1,774 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 28 | #1,876 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 28 | #1,826 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 33 | #1,656 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 37 | #1,545 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 27 | #1,890 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 40 | #1,390 | 0.03 |
| 1945 | 34 | #1,396 | 0.03 |
| 1944 | 57 | #1,044 | 0.04 |
| 1943 | 64 | #994 | 0.05 |
| 1942 | 83 | #842 | 0.06 |
| 1941 | 130 | #622 | 0.11 |
| 1940 | 174 | #521 | 0.15 |
| 1939 | 200 | #472 | 0.18 |
| 1938 | 254 | #422 | 0.23 |
| 1937 | 344 | #341 | 0.32 |
| 1936 | 166 | #506 | 0.16 |
| 1935 | 6 | #4,143 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shelba a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shelba has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 43 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shelba: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shelba, and how old are they?
1,060 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 50% of the 2,141 Americans ever recorded as Shelba. The median Shelba alive today is 82 years old; half are between 70 and 87.
The 2020 Census counted 1,406 people named Shelba (1,392 women and girls, 14 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,381 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 567 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 393 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 93 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 7 |
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 Shelba born?
The states with the most babies named Shelba are North Carolina, Georgia and West Virginia, with 39% of its births recorded by state since 1910; West Virginia is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 225 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Georgia | 165 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| West Virginia | 124 | not ranked | 3.3× |
| Arkansas | 119 | not ranked | 3.3× |
| Alabama | 110 | not ranked | 1.9× |
| Tennessee | 93 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Ohio | 86 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Missouri | 79 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Kentucky | 60 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 52 | not ranked | 1.0× |
Where Shelba is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shelba is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1935 it was given 3.3 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 Shelba 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 180,826 babies since 1880, Shelba is the fourth most given (1.2% of them). In 2025 none of their 511 babies recorded by SSA was a Shelba (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 Shelba
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 Shelba and names like it
- Compare Shelba and ShelbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sShelba peaked in 1937.
- North Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shelba since 1910.
- The top names of 1937The year the most babies were named Shelba.
- The names of the Silent GenerationMost people named Shelba alive today were born 1928-1945.
- Names starting with SMost given first.