Shelby
Shelby was given to 444 girls in 2025, #649 among girls’ names; 165,279 Americans have been recorded with it since 1880 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 149,000 Americans named Shelby and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (90% of everyone recorded); the median is 31 years old and half are between 24 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shelby by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Shelby mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Shelby is “a female given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “dweller of the willow place” (Salibi) and “willow, sallow” (salwe) and “settlement, farm” (-by).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From a medieval name, of obscure origin, yet likely an alteration of Middle English Selby, Salibi (“dweller of the willow place”), from salwe (“willow, sallow”) + -by (“settlement, farm”).
/ˈʃɛlbi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Shelby?
#649 among girls’ names, 2025
Shelby fell from #300 in 2015 to #649 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.61 to 0.28 per 1,000.
10,744 babies in 1991, the peak
Shelby peaked in 1991, when 10,744 babies were given it (10,220 girls, #33 among girls’ names). The 485 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 5% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 444 | #649 | 0.28 |
| 2024 | 446 | #658 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 448 | #657 | 0.28 |
| 2022 | 503 | #596 | 0.31 |
| 2021 | 556 | #550 | 0.34 |
| 2020 | 606 | #501 | 0.37 |
| 2019 | 634 | #495 | 0.38 |
| 2018 | 738 | #425 | 0.43 |
| 2017 | 836 | #373 | 0.48 |
| 2016 | 986 | #337 | 0.56 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,080 | #300 | 0.61 |
| 2014 | 1,114 | #294 | 0.62 |
| 2013 | 1,239 | #261 | 0.71 |
| 2012 | 1,447 | #220 | 0.82 |
| 2011 | 1,462 | #217 | 0.83 |
| 2010 | 1,680 | #184 | 0.95 |
| 2009 | 1,935 | #169 | 1.1 |
| 2008 | 2,148 | #158 | 1.1 |
| 2007 | 2,351 | #149 | 1.2 |
| 2006 | 2,620 | #133 | 1.4 |
| 2005 | 2,839 | #117 | 1.5 |
| 2004 | 2,988 | #112 | 1.6 |
| 2003 | 3,537 | #94 | 1.9 |
| 2002 | 3,961 | #75 | 2.2 |
| 2001 | 4,370 | #68 | 2.4 |
| 2000 | 4,561 | #70 | 2.5 |
| 1999 | 5,018 | #62 | 2.8 |
| 1998 | 5,893 | #49 | 3.3 |
| 1997 | 6,701 | #43 | 3.8 |
| 1996 | 7,950 | #35 | 4.5 |
| 1995 | 7,632 | #38 | 4.3 |
| 1994 | 7,546 | #40 | 4.2 |
| 1993 | 8,122 | #37 | 4.5 |
| 1992 | 9,396 | #34 | 5.1 |
| 1991 | 10,220 | #33 | 5.5 |
| 1990 | 3,517 | #100 | 1.9 |
| 1989 | 1,203 | #229 | 0.65 |
| 1988 | 881 | #284 | 0.49 |
| 1987 | 899 | #273 | 0.52 |
| 1986 | 900 | #276 | 0.52 |
| 1985 | 885 | #281 | 0.51 |
| 1984 | 1,042 | #242 | 0.62 |
| 1983 | 642 | #351 | 0.38 |
| 1982 | 435 | #479 | 0.26 |
| 1981 | 512 | #424 | 0.31 |
| 1980 | 482 | #443 | 0.29 |
| 1979 | 428 | #473 | 0.27 |
| 1978 | 483 | #419 | 0.32 |
| 1977 | 553 | #383 | 0.36 |
| 1976 | 575 | #365 | 0.39 |
| 1975 | 746 | #308 | 0.51 |
| 1974 | 798 | #300 | 0.54 |
| 1973 | 678 | #328 | 0.46 |
| 1972 | 754 | #318 | 0.50 |
| 1971 | 555 | #394 | 0.33 |
| 1970 | 400 | #499 | 0.23 |
| 1969 | 326 | #547 | 0.19 |
| 1968 | 319 | #539 | 0.19 |
| 1967 | 293 | #551 | 0.18 |
| 1966 | 304 | #540 | 0.18 |
| 1965 | 274 | #577 | 0.16 |
| 1964 | 317 | #557 | 0.17 |
| 1963 | 371 | #506 | 0.19 |
| 1962 | 370 | #503 | 0.19 |
| 1961 | 386 | #494 | 0.19 |
| 1960 | 307 | #560 | 0.15 |
| 1959 | 357 | #517 | 0.18 |
| 1958 | 382 | #490 | 0.19 |
| 1957 | 367 | #494 | 0.18 |
| 1956 | 345 | #506 | 0.17 |
| 1955 | 344 | #490 | 0.18 |
| 1954 | 310 | #504 | 0.16 |
| 1953 | 262 | #531 | 0.14 |
| 1952 | 228 | #575 | 0.12 |
| 1951 | 232 | #557 | 0.13 |
| 1950 | 248 | #518 | 0.14 |
| 1949 | 241 | #532 | 0.14 |
| 1948 | 266 | #499 | 0.16 |
| 1947 | 369 | #425 | 0.21 |
| 1946 | 397 | #383 | 0.25 |
| 1945 | 333 | #388 | 0.25 |
| 1944 | 367 | #366 | 0.28 |
| 1943 | 491 | #314 | 0.35 |
| 1942 | 599 | #279 | 0.44 |
| 1941 | 826 | #213 | 0.68 |
| 1940 | 1,006 | #187 | 0.88 |
| 1939 | 1,164 | #170 | 1.1 |
| 1938 | 1,714 | #142 | 1.6 |
| 1937 | 1,997 | #119 | 1.9 |
| 1936 | 1,071 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 1935 | 67 | #848 | 0.06 |
| 1934 | 17 | #1,988 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 18 | #1,898 | 0.02 |
| 1932 | 18 | #1,940 | 0.02 |
| 1931 | 11 | #2,731 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 10 | #3,111 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 19 | #2,013 | 0.02 |
| 1927 | 11 | #3,024 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,619 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,381 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 7 | #4,316 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 10 | #3,344 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 12 | #2,912 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 10 | #3,311 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,195 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 5 | #5,477 | under 0.01 |
| 1917 | 9 | #3,311 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 10 | #3,003 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,857 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 5 | #4,113 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 5 | #3,633 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shelby a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 165,279 Americans recorded as Shelby, 90% are girls and 10% boys. Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Shelby every year since 1936. In 2025 it went to 444 girls and 41 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Shelby: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shelby, and how old are they?
149,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 90% of the 165,279 Americans ever recorded as Shelby. The median Shelby alive today is 31 years old; half are between 24 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 136,597 people named Shelby (127,029 women and girls, 9,568 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 149,962 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 4,250 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 6,490 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 9,730 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 64,400 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 54,300 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,100 |
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 Shelby born?
The states with the most babies named Shelby are Texas, California and North Carolina, with 29% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 57 | #631 | 1.1× |
| California | 35 | #854 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 28 | #403 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 27 | #294 | 1.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 24 | #451 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 22 | #763 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 17 | #642 | 1.1× |
| Virginia | 16 | #517 | 1.1× |
| New York | 16 | #972 | 0.3× |
| Alabama | 15 | #344 | 1.6× |
Where Shelby is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shelby is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1910 it was given 2.3 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 Shelby 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, Shelby is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 485 of their 511 babies (95%), 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 Shelby
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 Shelby and names like it
- Compare Shelby and ShelbieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sShelby peaked in 1991.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shelby since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Shelby: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1991The year the most babies were named Shelby.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Shelby alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.