Shayla

About Shayla

Shayla is a modern English name formed around sounds familiar from names such as Sheila and Kayla. It does not have one established literal translation. Its two syllables are easy to recognize, and writers Shayla Black and Shayla Lawson give the exact spelling two different literary associations.

Formation and related names

Shayla belongs to the modern development of familiar name sounds into new forms. Its long a vowel distinguishes it from the usual SHEE-luh pronunciation of Sheila.

Sheila, Shelia, and Shyla appear within its related spelling group, though not every use of those names follows the same history. The English Shayla form is pronounced SHAY-luh, with emphasis on the first syllable.

The opening sh softens the sound, while the final vowel gives it an open ending. Shay could be considered an informal shortening taken from the beginning, although the full name is already only two syllables.

Shayla Black and romance fiction

Shayla Black is a romance novelist whose work spans contemporary, historical, and paranormal settings. She has also published as Shelley Bradley.

Her books have appeared through traditional publishers, small presses, independent editions, and audiobooks, and have been translated into several languages. Her work includes erotic romance as well as stories in contemporary, historical, and paranormal settings.

Shayla Lawson and personal essays

Shayla Lawson's This Is Major appeared in 2020. The collection brings personal experience together with popular culture and an examination of Black girl culture.

Its essays consider whose stories receive attention, how stereotypes shape everyday experience, and the relationship between public images and private lives. The subtitle refers to Diana Ross, dark girls, and being dope, signaling the book's mixture of cultural commentary and personal voice.

How to Live Free in a Dangerous World followed in 2024. The book combines memoir and travel writing, moving through places including Venice, the Netherlands, Mexico City, Egypt, and Bermuda.

The journeys become a way to examine love, identity, disability, and freedom. Lawson's work gives Shayla a literary association distinct from Black's genre fiction, while keeping the same first-name spelling visible in contemporary publishing.

The itinerary includes a meeting with a gondolier in Venice, memories of an ex-husband in the Netherlands, and a New Year’s Eve encounter with a lost love in Mexico City. Elsewhere, Lawson visits a hula hoop competition in Jamaica and a traditional theatre in Tokyo. The personal encounters connect the travel narrative with relationships, grief, and changing ideas of self.

American popularity

Shayla's largest published annual count and strongest United States ranking for girls came in 1999, with 1,188 births at #267.

The name remained fairly frequent in 2000, when 1,009 girls placed it at #312. There were 694 girls named Shayla in 2010.

In 2025, 113 girls received the spelling, ranking #1,793. The pattern gives Shayla a pronounced late-1990s American peak followed by a smaller continuing presence. These figures count Shayla separately from Sheila, Shyla, and the other related forms.

How popular is Shayla?

In 2025, Shayla ranked #1,793 among girls in the United States, with 113 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1950; its largest annual count was 1,188 in 1999. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.