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Sheelah

Girls' name

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Sheelah has been given to 89 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 1943, with 7 recorded.

Babies named Sheelah, 1985

1 in 595,000

Sheelah over time, 1880–2025

Girls
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sheelah: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning unconfirmed; recorded in an 1884 name reference

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sheelah means

Sheelah is a given name.

The naming story behind Sheelah

Charlotte M. Yonge’s 1884 History of Christian Names includes the exact spelling Sheelah in its glossary. The entry labels it feminine and points to printed page(s) 144.

The glossary’s abbreviated description reads: “Ir. Lat. blind”. This is the historical author’s wording, including its language abbreviations and any proposed interpretation. It is presented as historical evidence, not as a verified modern translation. Victorian classifications and root explanations can differ from later linguistic research.

For Sheelah, the current short meaning therefore remains unconfirmed. Establishing its modern etymology requires a current reference that documents the exact form and its relationship to the proposed earlier words.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 89 girls were recorded with the name Sheelah between 1943 and 1985. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1943; its best national rank was #4,139 in 1943.

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 Sheelah?

Sheelah had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1985, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1985
1 in 595,000
6 of 3,568,740 births
Among girls only
1 in 287,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1985
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
412,278 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sheelah 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 1985 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 412,278 children born in 1985 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sheelah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sheelahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sheelah was born before 1964 — so the typical Sheelah is around 61 today.

Median birth year
1964
About 61 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
53.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
73.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
71
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 53.9% of all recorded uses (48).

Is Sheelah 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 1943 (7)
Years since peak
82
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,139
1943

Spellings of Sheelah

Sheelah is not the most common spelling — Sheila is, with 80.2% against Sheelah's 0.03%.

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.

Sheelah around the world

Where Sheelah 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.

  • South Australia
    1945–1945
    #340
    in 1945

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Sheelah 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
#4,139
1943
Peak year
1943
7 that year
First recorded
1943
Last recorded
1985
All-time count
89
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Sheelah

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

ShelahSheilynSheylinSheilahShelsieShemecaSheenahSherialSheketaShekelaDanilahShervonDenylahSherlonSheniyaSheleenShekeraShevaunShenayaSanylahSheraldSheniahAnaylahShetara

Sibling names for Sheelah

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 Sheelah

Top names of 1943, Sheelah's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1943Girls' names starting with S