Sheli
Sheli was last recorded in 1991, when 9 babies were given it; 647 Americans have been recorded with it between 1954 and 1991 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sheli by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sheli?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #9,228, in 1991; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
43 babies in 1968, the peak
Sheli peaked in 1968, when 43 girls were given it, #1,826 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 9 | #9,228 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 7 | #11,205 | 3.7 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,285 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 12 | #6,270 | 6.9 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,385 | 4.7 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,457 | 3.5 |
| 1983 | 6 | #10,051 | 3.6 |
| 1981 | 11 | #6,242 | 6.6 |
| 1980 | 8 | #8,037 | 4.8 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,707 | 7.5 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 15 | #4,649 | 9.8 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,888 | 9.1 |
| 1976 | 18 | #3,798 | 12.3 |
| 1975 | 22 | #3,239 | 15.1 |
| 1974 | 22 | #3,194 | 15.0 |
| 1973 | 26 | #2,736 | 17.8 |
| 1972 | 36 | #2,167 | 23.7 |
| 1971 | 37 | #2,209 | 22.2 |
| 1970 | 30 | #2,510 | 17.2 |
| 1969 | 30 | #2,390 | 17.8 |
| 1968 | 43 | #1,826 | 26.2 |
| 1967 | 29 | #2,264 | 17.6 |
| 1966 | 30 | #2,184 | 17.7 |
| 1965 | 26 | #2,396 | 14.7 |
| 1964 | 36 | #2,002 | 19.0 |
| 1963 | 27 | #2,350 | 14.0 |
| 1962 | 28 | #2,302 | 14.2 |
| 1961 | 17 | #3,166 | 8.4 |
| 1960 | 20 | #2,807 | 9.9 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,790 | 5.9 |
| 1958 | 16 | #3,063 | 8.0 |
| 1957 | 9 | #4,494 | 4.4 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,330 | 4.6 |
| 1954 | 7 | #5,065 | 3.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sheli a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sheli has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 34 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sheli: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sheli, and how old are they?
An estimated 586 Americans named Sheli and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (91% of everyone recorded); the median is 57 years old and half are between 51 and 62. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 710 people named Sheli (709 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 604 born in the U.S. The Census count is 18% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Sheli rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
How common is the spelling Sheli?
Sheli is a less common spelling of Shelly: SSA has recorded 647 Sheli and 86,610 Shelly since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 398,051 babies since 1880, Sheli is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 164 babies recorded by SSA was a Sheli (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 Sheli
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 Sheli and names like it
- Compare Sheli and ShellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sSheli peaked in 1968.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sheli since 1910.
- The top names of 1968The year the most babies were named Sheli.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Sheli alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with SMost given first.