Shilah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "the sent one."
Name Census estimates that about 875 living Americans carry the first name Shilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shilah today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shilah births was 2007 (64 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shilah. 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 Shilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
875
~ 1 in 391,719 Americans
Peak year
2007
64 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,853
Tracked since 1974
Census
Shilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 733 people with the first name Shilah, which placed it at #15,631 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
#15,631
National first-name rank
People counted
733
733 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shilah is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (26.5%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Shilah 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 Shilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.4% · 362
- Black or African American26.5% · 194
- Hispanic or Latino12.0% · 88
- Two or more races8.2% · 60
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 13
Popularity
Shilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shilah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 306 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
Shilah 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 Shilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Florida, Texas recorded the most babies named Shilah, while New York, Texas, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shilah
The name Shilah originates from the Hebrew language and has its roots in the Bible. It is a masculine name derived from the Hebrew word "shiloh," which means "he whose it is" or "the one to whom it belongs."
In the Book of Genesis, Shiloh is mentioned as a name or title referring to a descendant of Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. The verse reads: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (Genesis 49:10). This passage has been interpreted in various ways, but some scholars believe it refers to the Messiah or a future ruler.
The name Shilah (or Shiloh) also appears in the Book of Joshua as a place name, referring to a town in the territory of Ephraim, where the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were kept for many years after the Israelites entered the Promised Land.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shilah as a personal name is found in the Old Testament, where it is mentioned as the son of Judah and his Canaanite wife, Bath-shua (Genesis 38:5). However, there are no other significant details provided about this person.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Shilah:
1. Shilah Soffer (1490-1550), a renowned Talmudic scholar and kabbalist from Poland.
2. Shilah Pepin (1705-1782), a Native American leader and grand chief of the Wampanoag tribe in what is now Massachusetts.
3. Shilah Woodbury (1825-1898), an American politician and lawyer who served as the 19th Governor of Vermont from 1892 to 1894.
4. Shilah Kachelman (1899-1981), an American baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs in the 1920s.
5. Shilah Phillips (1940-2020), an American author and journalist known for her work on Native American issues and history.
While not a common name, Shilah has maintained a presence throughout various cultures and time periods, primarily due to its biblical origins and connection to the Hebrew language. Its meaning and significance have been interpreted in various ways, but it remains a unique and historically significant name.
People
Shilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shilah 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
Shilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 875 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shilah 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 391,719 US residents.
Is Shilah a common name?
We classify Shilah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 897 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Shilah was 2007, when 64 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shilah is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 733 people with the name Shilah, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,631 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 Shilah 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 Shilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shilah leans strongly female. 716 people counted with this name were female (96.8%), compared with 24 male bearers (3.2%). 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 Shilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shilah is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Black (26.5%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Shilah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (362 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 Shilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shilah 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 Shilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shilah 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 Shilah 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 have Shilah as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Shilah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.