Shipley
From an English place name meaning "a clearing in a wood".
Name Census estimates that about 7 living Americans carry the first name Shipley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Shipley today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shipley births was 2020 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shipley. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Shipley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
7
~ 1 in 48,964,905 Americans
Peak year
2020
7 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2020 SSA rank
#10,433
Tracked since 2020
Popularity
Shipley: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Shipley 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 Shipley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Shipley
The name Shipley is an English toponymic surname that originated as a habitational name for someone who lived near a sheep pasture or sheep farm. It is derived from the Old English words "scip" meaning sheep and "leah" meaning a meadow or clearing. The name likely first emerged in the medieval period in rural areas of England where sheep farming was a common occupation.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a great survey of land and landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror, there are several recorded place names containing the element "Shipley" such as Schipeley in Yorkshire and Scipelei in Derbyshire. This suggests the name was already well-established by the late 11th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Shipley was Sir Shipley Pratte, who lived in the late 14th century and served as a knight under King Richard II of England. Another early bearer was Shipley Halliday, an English merchant and explorer who traveled to the East Indies in the early 1600s.
In the 17th century, Shipley Hibbins was a renowned English architect who designed several churches and grand manors in the Baroque style. A century later, Shipley Wilkinson (1734-1807) was a respected British jurist who served as Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas.
Moving into the 19th century, Shipley Thompson (1819-1899) was an American industrialist who founded the Shipley Thread Company, once a major producer of cotton thread in the United States. And in the 20th century, Shipley Gunn (1901-1983) was a British artist known for his modernist paintings and sculptures.
While not a common first name today, Shipley has a long history stretching back to medieval England. Its origins are firmly rooted in the pastoral landscapes and sheep farming traditions of the British countryside from centuries past.
People
Shipley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shipley 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
Shipley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shipley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shipley 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 48,964,905 US residents.
Is Shipley a common name?
We classify Shipley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 23.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shipley most popular?
The single biggest year for Shipley was 2020, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shipley is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Shipley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shipley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shipley in the SSA data are male. 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 Shipley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shipley 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 Shipley 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Shipley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.