Shaylen
A feminine name of unknown meaning or origin.
Name Census estimates that about 601 living Americans carry the first name Shaylen. It is a predominantly female name (94.8% of registrations). The average person named Shaylen today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shaylen births was 2002 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shaylen. 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
601
~ 1 in 570,307 Americans
Peak year
2002
45 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2008 SSA rank
#10,851
Tracked since 1984
Gender
Gender distribution for Shaylen
Shaylen leans heavily female at 94.8% of total registrations, but 32 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shaylen as a male name
- Ranked #10,851 in 2008
- 7 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1993 (7 births)
Shaylen as a female name
- Ranked #17,264 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2002 (39 births)
Popularity
Shaylen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shaylen from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 299 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
Shaylen 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 Shaylen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shaylens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Shaylen
The name Shaylen is of English origin, derived from the Old English word "scealic," which means "a hut or temporary dwelling." The name is believed to have first appeared in the 7th century AD, during the Anglo-Saxon period in England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shaylen can be found in the Domesday Book, a record of land ownership in England compiled in 1086 by order of King William the Conqueror. The name is listed as "Scealinc," referring to a person living in a temporary shelter or hut.
In the 12th century, the name Shaylen appeared in the Middle English romance poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The poem mentions a character named "Schaylen the Shepherd," who is described as a loyal servant to King Arthur.
During the Renaissance period, a notable figure named Shaylen was Shaylen Holinshed (1529-1580), an English chronicler and historian. His work, "Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland," was a significant source of information for writers such as William Shakespeare.
In the 18th century, Shaylen Talbot (1700-1768) was a prominent English lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain from 1737 to 1737.
Another historical figure with the name Shaylen was Shaylen Gardiner (1809-1886), an American educator and advocate for women's rights. She founded the Troy Female Seminary in New York, one of the first institutions in the United States to offer higher education to women.
Throughout history, the name Shaylen has maintained its English roots and has been used by a diverse range of individuals, from writers and historians to politicians and educators.
People
Shaylen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shaylen 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
Shaylen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shaylen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 601 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shaylen 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 570,307 US residents.
Is Shaylen a common name?
We classify Shaylen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 612 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shaylen most popular?
The single biggest year for Shaylen was 2002, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shaylen is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Shaylen a female name?
Yes, 94.8% of people registered as Shaylen 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.