Shelli
A variant of the feminine name Shelley, possibly meaning "meadow of the willows".
Name Census estimates that about 5,988 living Americans carry the first name Shelli. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shelli today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shelli births was 1968 (396 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shelli. 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
6.0K
~ 1 in 57,240 Americans
Peak year
1968
396 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2010 SSA rank
#14,732
Tracked since 1945
Popularity
Shelli: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shelli from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 3,217 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
Shelli 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 Shelli during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shellis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Shelli, while South Carolina, North Dakota, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 125 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shelli
The name Shelli is a modern English variant of the Hebrew name Shelley or Shelly, which itself is a diminutive form of the name Shelomoh or Solomon. The name Solomon is derived from the Hebrew words "shalom" meaning peace and "moth" meaning entire or perfect, thus the name Solomon means "peaceful one" or "complete peace".
The name Solomon has its roots in ancient Hebrew history, with the most famous bearer being King Solomon, the son of King David and Bathsheba. Solomon is revered in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a wise and wealthy ruler of the united Kingdom of Israel during the 10th century BCE. The biblical figure is mentioned extensively in the Old Testament, particularly in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
The name Shelli first emerged as a feminine variant of the name Shelley or Shelly during the 20th century in English-speaking countries, especially in the United States and United Kingdom. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Shelli was the American actress Shelli Novak, who was born in 1937 and appeared in several films and television shows in the 1960s and 1970s.
Another notable bearer of the name Shelli was Shelli Lether, a Canadian ice hockey player who competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. She was born in 1970 and was a member of the Canadian national women's ice hockey team that won the silver medal at the Olympics.
In literature, the name Shelli appears in the novel "The Shining" by Stephen King, published in 1977. In the book, Shelli is the name of a young girl who is one of the victims of the haunted Overlook Hotel.
Other historical figures named Shelli include Shelli Weinstein, an American businesswoman and philanthropist who co-founded the Weinstein Company with her husband, Harvey Weinstein. She was born in 1952 and has been involved in various charitable organizations and causes.
Additionally, Shelli Bressler was an American psychologist and author who wrote several books on topics such as stress management and personal growth. She was born in 1944 and her works include "The Mastery of Love" and "The Passion Test".
People
Shelli + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shelli 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
Shelli: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shelli?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,988 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shelli 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 57,240 US residents.
Is Shelli a common name?
We classify Shelli as "Rare". It ranks above 96.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,983 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shelli most popular?
The single biggest year for Shelli was 1968, when 396 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shelli is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Shelli a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shelli 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.