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Sheela

Girls' name

Character, good conduct

Sheela has been given to 679 babies in the U.S. since 1943. 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 1988, with 27 recorded.

Babies named Sheela, 2015

1 in 740,000

Sheela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sheela: meaning, origin, and history

Character, good conduct

Sanskrit

What Sheela means

Sheela means “character, good conduct”, associated with śīla.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Hindi शीला (śīlā), from Sanskrit शील (śīla, “character, good conduct”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Sheela (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Sheela is used in English. Its origins include Sanskrit.

Sheela comes through Hindi शीला and Sanskrit शील.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Sheela is pronounced /ˈʃiːlə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 679 girls were recorded with the name Sheela between 1943 and 2015. Its highest annual count was 27 in 1988; its best national rank was #2,743 in 1959.

How common is Sheela?

Sheela had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2015, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2015
1 in 740,000
5 of 3,701,574 births
Among girls only
1 in 357,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2015
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
513,148 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sheela 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 2015 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 513,148 children born in 2015 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sheela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sheelas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sheela was born before 1975 — so the typical Sheela is around 50 today.

Median birth year
1975
About 50 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
27.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
636
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 27.0% of all recorded uses (183).

Is Sheela 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 1988 (27)
Years since peak
37
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,743
1959

Spellings of Sheela

Sheela is not the most common spelling — Sheila is, with 32.8% against Sheela's 0.09%.

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 Sheela is used

Across 1910–2025, Sheela was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 594,149 across all states with data. It was least common in New York (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 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. Sheela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Sheela around the world

Where Sheela 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.

  • Ireland
    1970–1970
    #396
    in 1970
  • South Australia
    1973–1973
    #695
    in 1973

Popularity data from Central Statistics Office and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Sheela 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
#2,743
1959
Peak year
1988
27 that year
First recorded
1943
Last recorded
2015
All-time count
679
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Sheela

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

ShelaSheilySheinaShelsyShekelaSherlyShelseaSherlinSheyliShevySherilSheriaSheanaShevaShealynAnjelaShelleSheldaSheranSherreSherraShelahMayelaJamela

Sibling names for Sheela

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 Sheela

Top names of 1988, Sheela's peak yearThe 1980s in fullOther names that peaked in 1959Girls' names starting with S