Shell — unisex name

What the Data Says About Shell

The Social Security Administration has registered 198 babies named Shell between 1951 and 1986, spanning 36 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Shell currently falls outside the top 1,000 girls' names for 1986. The name reached its historical peak in 1965, when 16 babies received it in a single year. Shell is classified as unisex in SSA records: the opposite-sex variant accounts for 113 additional births since 1952.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Shell performed strongest in the 1960s, accumulating 111 births during that ten-year window. Across the 4 decades of recorded activity, Shell shows a clear decline from its mid-century high.

No etymological entry is currently available for Shell in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 198 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.