Name Awesome

Shala

Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Shala has been given to 2,061 babies in the U.S. since 1947. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1991, with 89 recorded.

Babies named Shala, 2012

1 in 610,000

Shala over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shala: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shala means

Shala is a given name.

The naming story behind Shala

Wikidata records Shala as a given name. The entity identifier is Q121208795, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,061 girls were recorded with the name Shala between 1947 and 2012. Its highest annual count was 89 in 1991; its best national rank was #1,533 in 1985.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Shala?

Shala had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2012, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2012
1 in 610,000
6 of 3,657,590 births
Among girls only
1 in 293,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2012
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
422,543 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shala sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2012 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 422,543 children born in 2012 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shala. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shalas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shala was born before 1986 — so the typical Shala is around 39 today.

Median birth year
1986
About 39 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
32.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
46.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,055
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 32.5% of all recorded uses (670).

Is Shala rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1991 (89)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,533
1985

Spellings of Shala

Shala is not the most common spelling — Sara is, with 31.8% against Shala's 0.15%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Shala is used

Across 1910–2025, Shala was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 234,769 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Florida1 in 100,000
  2. 2Kansas1 in 100,000
  3. 3Michigan1 in 100,000
  4. 4Ohio1 in 100,000
  5. 5Oklahoma1 in 100,000
  6. 6Texas1 in 100,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in —
  8. 8Arkansas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Shala has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shala around the world

Where Shala ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2002–2002
    #4,137
    in 2002
  • Canada
    1991–1991
    #2,397
    in 1991
  • South Australia
    1988–1988
    #657
    in 1988

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Shala by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,533
1985
Peak year
1991
89 that year
First recorded
1947
Last recorded
2012
All-time count
2,061
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shala

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ShayeShayaShaniShamyaShantiShaiShadeSharaShanelShahdShayneShailaShalomShanaeShakalaShalonShaelaShastaShaqualaShaylynShaniahShaylinShaindyShaun

Names with a curve like Shala

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Shala, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DaniellAricaTequilaShantelleJeneeRosioTalisaCorissaErinnAleshiaChantellTalisha

Sibling names for Shala

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Shala

Top names of 1991, Shala's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1985Girls' names starting with S