Shaily
A feminine name of Hindi origin meaning "woman from the Himalayas".
Name Census estimates that about 185 living Americans carry the first name Shaily. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shaily today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaily births was 2001 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaily. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
185
~ 1 in 1,852,726 Americans
Peak year
2001
12 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2023 SSA rank
#17,233
Tracked since 1990
Popularity
Shaily: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaily from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 80 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shaily by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shaily during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shailys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shaily
The name Shaily has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language from the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "Shailee," which means "rock" or "mountain." The name is believed to have been in use as early as the 5th century BCE, during the Vedic period of ancient India.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Shaily can be found in the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, which is dated between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE. In the epic, Shaily is described as a beautiful nymph who resided in the Himalayas. This association with nature and the majestic mountains likely contributed to the name's popularity and its symbolic meaning of strength and resilience.
Throughout the centuries, the name Shaily has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest known was Shaily, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet who lived in the 7th century CE during the Gupta Empire. Her work, "Shaily Shatakam," a collection of lyrical poetry, is considered a masterpiece of Sanskrit literature.
Another prominent figure was Shaily Sharan Gupta, a 20th-century Indian politician and freedom fighter who played a significant role in India's independence movement. He was born in 1894 and served as a member of the Constituent Assembly of India, which drafted the country's constitution.
In the field of science, Shaily Menon, an Indian-American astrophysicist born in 1976, made significant contributions to the study of black holes and gravitational waves. She was part of the team that detected gravitational waves for the first time in 2016, a groundbreaking discovery that earned the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Shaily Prasad, born in 1942, is a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer. She is widely regarded as one of the leading exponents of the Kathak dance form and has received numerous accolades, including the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors.
Lastly, Shaily Shrivastav, born in 1960, is an accomplished Indian actress who has starred in numerous Bollywood films and television shows. She is known for her versatile performances and has won several awards, including the prestigious Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.
People
Shaily + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaily as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shaily: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaily?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 185 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaily going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,852,726 US residents.
Is Shaily a common name?
We classify Shaily as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 188 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaily most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaily was 2001, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaily is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Shaily a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shaily in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.