Shelbi
Shelbi was given to 13 girls in 2025, #8,276 among girls’ names; 5,496 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,380 Americans named Shelbi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 26 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shelbi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shelbi mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shelbi is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
Fanciful 20th-century spelling of Shelby.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shelbi?
#8,276 among girls’ names, 2025
Shelbi fell from #6,425 in 2015 to #8,276 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 11.2 to 8.1 per million.
515 babies in 1992, the peak
Shelbi peaked in 1992, when 515 girls were given it, #480 among girls’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 3% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,276 | 0.01 |
| 2024 | 5 | #17,320 | under 0.01 |
| 2022 | 9 | #11,111 | 0.01 |
| 2021 | 14 | #7,967 | 0.01 |
| 2020 | 10 | #10,158 | 0.01 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,646 | 0.01 |
| 2018 | 18 | #6,747 | 0.01 |
| 2017 | 14 | #8,228 | 0.01 |
| 2016 | 17 | #7,189 | 0.01 |
| 2015 | 20 | #6,425 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 27 | #5,148 | 0.02 |
| 2013 | 31 | #4,632 | 0.02 |
| 2012 | 39 | #3,980 | 0.02 |
| 2011 | 55 | #3,083 | 0.03 |
| 2010 | 60 | #2,897 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 55 | #3,122 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 74 | #2,554 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 82 | #2,346 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 75 | #2,479 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 97 | #1,980 | 0.05 |
| 2004 | 107 | #1,791 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 122 | #1,586 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 124 | #1,530 | 0.07 |
| 2001 | 169 | #1,210 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 175 | #1,155 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 214 | #968 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 235 | #898 | 0.13 |
| 1997 | 276 | #764 | 0.16 |
| 1996 | 320 | #683 | 0.18 |
| 1995 | 337 | #644 | 0.19 |
| 1994 | 376 | #600 | 0.21 |
| 1993 | 429 | #557 | 0.24 |
| 1992 | 515 | #480 | 0.28 |
| 1991 | 513 | #475 | 0.27 |
| 1990 | 220 | #880 | 0.12 |
| 1989 | 77 | #1,764 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 47 | #2,355 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 37 | #2,707 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 43 | #2,376 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 27 | #3,316 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,565 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 29 | #2,967 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 15 | #4,904 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,301 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 29 | #3,057 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 22 | #3,646 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 20 | #3,750 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 26 | #3,062 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,266 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 35 | #2,347 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 26 | #2,821 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 24 | #2,901 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,513 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 15 | #4,092 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 14 | #4,217 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,679 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 12 | #4,184 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,658 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,799 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 8 | #5,398 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,411 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #6,446 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shelbi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shelbi has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 62 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Shelbi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shelbi, and how old are they?
5,380 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,496 Americans ever recorded as Shelbi. The median Shelbi alive today is 31 years old; half are between 26 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 4,559 people named Shelbi (4,541 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,364 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% 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 | 16 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 271 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,970 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,940 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 188 |
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 Shelbi born?
The states with the most babies named Shelbi are Texas, California and Louisiana, with 37% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Louisiana is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 787 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| California | 330 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Louisiana | 250 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| Indiana | 206 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Ohio | 196 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 192 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Oklahoma | 169 | not ranked | 2.4× |
| Missouri | 153 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 134 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Kentucky | 134 | not ranked | 1.5× |
Where Shelbi is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shelbi is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1961 it was given 2.7 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 Shelbi 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, Shelbi is the third most given (3.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 511 babies (2.5%), again the third 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 Shelbi
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 Shelbi and names like it
- Compare Shelbi and ShelbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShelbi peaked in 1992.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shelbi since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Shelbi: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1992The year the most babies were named Shelbi.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shelbi alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.