Shelbe
Shelbe was last recorded in 2007, when 5 babies were given it; 336 Americans have been recorded with it between 1973 and 2007 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shelbe by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shelbe?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #20,106, in 2007; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
35 babies in 1991, the peak
Shelbe peaked in 1991, when 35 girls were given it, #3,191 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 5 | #20,106 | 2.6 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,805 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,799 | 5.4 |
| 2004 | 7 | #13,968 | 3.8 |
| 2003 | 6 | #15,467 | 3.3 |
| 2002 | 11 | #9,391 | 6.1 |
| 2001 | 18 | #6,269 | 10.0 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,611 | 5.0 |
| 1999 | 17 | #6,151 | 9.6 |
| 1998 | 21 | #5,095 | 11.9 |
Every recorded year (24)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 22 | #4,793 | 12.6 |
| 1996 | 26 | #4,167 | 14.8 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,323 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 21 | #4,814 | 11.8 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,503 | 12.7 |
| 1992 | 30 | #3,655 | 16.3 |
| 1991 | 35 | #3,191 | 18.7 |
| 1990 | 11 | #7,791 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 6 | #12,116 | 3.3 |
| 1988 | 5 | #13,551 | 2.8 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,455 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,985 | 4.2 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,622 | 3.4 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,537 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shelbe a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shelbe has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 24 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shelbe: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shelbe, and how old are they?
An estimated 329 Americans named Shelbe and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 27 and 34. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 369 people named Shelbe (358 women and girls, 11 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 331 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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.
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 180,826 babies since 1880, Shelbe is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 511 babies recorded by SSA was a Shelbe (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 Shelbe
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 Shelbe and names like it
- Compare Shelbe and ShelbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShelbe peaked in 1991.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Shelbe.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shelbe alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.