Name Awesome

Shela

Girls' name

Blind, through Síle

Shela has been given to 1,398 babies in the U.S. since 1935. 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 1950, with 44 recorded.

Babies named Shela, 2007

1 in 800,000

Shela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shela: meaning, origin, and history

Blind, through Síle

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shela means

Shela belongs to the name family reached through Shela → Síle → Caecilia. Its meaning is “blind”.

Origin, language, and formation

Shela is used in Fingallian.

Shela comes through Irish Síle.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Sheila, Síle and Caecilia.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,398 girls were recorded with the name Shela between 1935 and 2007. Its highest annual count was 44 in 1950; its best national rank was #1,392 in 1950.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Shela?

Shela had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2007, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2007
1 in 800,000
5 of 3,997,748 births
Among girls only
1 in 384,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2007
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
554,207 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shela 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 2007 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 554,207 children born in 2007 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shelas were born

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

Median birth year
1964
About 61 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
24.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
22.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,186
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 24.1% of all recorded uses (337).

Is Shela 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 1950 (44)
Years since peak
75
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,392
1950

Spellings of Shela

Shela is not the most common spelling — Sheila is, with 16.3% against Shela's 0.10%.

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 Shela is used

Across 1910–2025, Shela was most concentrated in Arkansas — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 489,148 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arkansas1 in —
  2. 2California1 in —
  3. 3Georgia1 in —
  4. 4Mississippi1 in —
  5. 5North Carolina1 in —
  6. 6New York1 in —
  7. 7Tennessee1 in —
  8. 8Texas1 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. Shela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shela around the world

Where Shela 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
    2011–2011
    #840
    in 2011

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

Shela 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
#1,392
1950
Peak year
1950
44 that year
First recorded
1935
Last recorded
2007
All-time count
1,398
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shela

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

SheelaSherlyShevyNeelaShevaSheraShebaLaelaAnelaKeelaSheilyShealynShenaSheinaShelsyShekelaSheylaJaelaSheliShennaSelaAkelaSherlinShelbi

Sibling names for Shela

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 Shela

Top names of 1950, Shela's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1950Girls' names starting with S