Shelley
A feminine given name of English origin meaning "from the willow meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 59,656 living Americans carry the first name Shelley. It is a predominantly female name (97.6% of registrations). The average person named Shelley today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shelley births was 1964 (2,845 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shelley. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shelley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Shelley is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,753 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Shelley have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
60K
~ 1 in 5,746 Americans
Peak year
1964
2,845 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
2001 SSA rank
#9,430
Tracked since 1892
Census
Shelley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 64,255 people with the first name Shelley, which placed it at #774 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#774
National first-name rank
People counted
64K
64,255 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
21.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shelley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shelley is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shelley described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shelley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.5% · 56,241
- Black or African American5.0% · 3,199
- Two or more races2.7% · 1,756
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 1,391
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 1,199
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 469
Gender
Gender distribution for Shelley
Shelley leans heavily female at 97.6% of total registrations, but 1,753 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shelley as a male name
- Ranked #12,036 in 2001
- 5 male births in 2001
- Peak: 1951 (46 births)
Shelley as a female name
- Ranked #9,430 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (2,821 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shelley leans strongly female. 63,533 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 720 male bearers (1.1%).
Popularity
Shelley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shelley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 25,089 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shelley 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 Shelley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shelleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Shelley, while Delaware, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,372 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shelley
The name Shelley is an English surname that has been adopted as a given name. Its origins can be traced back to the Old English word "scieling," which means "a youth, young man, or retainer." In the 11th century, the name appeared as "Scillinges" in the Domesday Book, a record of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror.
During the Middle Ages, the name Shelley was a common surname in various parts of England, particularly in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. It was often associated with families who lived near sheltered valleys or clearings, as the word "shel" or "shell" meant a shed or shelter in Old English.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Shelley as a given name can be found in the 16th century. Percy Bysshe Shelley, the renowned English Romantic poet, was born in 1792. His works, such as "Ode to the West Wind" and "Prometheus Unbound," have had a lasting impact on literature.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of the iconic novel "Frankenstein," was born in 1797. She was the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the science fiction genre.
In the 19th century, Shelley Beaumont (1836-1896) was an English actress and singer who performed in various theaters across London and New York City.
Shelley Winters (1920-2006) was an American actress who won two Academy Awards for her performances in "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959) and "A Patch of Blue" (1965).
Shelley Duvall (born 1949) is an American actress, writer, and producer, best known for her roles in films such as "The Shining" (1980) and "Popeye" (1980).
While the name Shelley was initially more common as a surname, it has gained popularity as a given name, particularly for women, in recent centuries. Its literary and artistic associations have contributed to its enduring appeal.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Shelley
People
Shelley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shelley 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
Shelley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shelley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59,656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shelley 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 5,746 US residents.
Is Shelley a common name?
We classify Shelley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 74,326 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shelley most popular?
The single biggest year for Shelley was 1964, when 2,845 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shelley is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shelley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 64,255 people with the name Shelley, or 21.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #774 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shelley in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shelley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shelley leans strongly female. 63,533 people counted with this name were female (98.9%), compared with 720 male bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shelley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shelley is White at 87.5%. The next largest groups are Black (5.0%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shelley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shelley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.5% (56,241 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shelley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shelley a female name?
Yes, 97.6% of people registered as Shelley 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.
Is Shelley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shelley in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shelley can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people are called Shelley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.