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Shelagh

Girls' name

Blind, through Síle

Shelagh has been given to 510 babies in the U.S. since 1942. 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 22 recorded.

Babies named Shelagh, 1999

1 in 738,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shelagh: meaning, origin, and history

Blind, through Síle

Irish

What Shelagh means

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

Origin, language, and formation

Shelagh is used in English. Its origins include Irish.

Shelagh comes through Irish Síle.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Síle, Sheila and Caecilia.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 510 girls were recorded with the name Shelagh between 1942 and 1999. Its highest annual count was 22 in 1950; its best national rank was #2,114 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 Shelagh?

Shelagh had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1999, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1999
1 in 738,000
5 of 3,692,373 births
Among girls only
1 in 355,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1999
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
511,873 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shelagh 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 1999 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 511,873 children born in 1999 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shelagh. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shelaghs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shelagh was born before 1965 — so the typical Shelagh is around 60 today.

Median birth year
1965
About 60 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
34.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
24.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
474
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 34.9% of all recorded uses (178).

Is Shelagh 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 (22)
Years since peak
75
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,114
1950

Spellings of Shelagh

Shelagh is not the most common spelling — Selah is, with 67.2% against Shelagh's 2.3%.

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 Shelagh is used

Across 1910–2025, Shelagh was most concentrated in Massachusetts — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 116,765 across all states with data.

11 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Massachusetts1 in 100,000

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. Shelagh has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shelagh around the world

Where Shelagh 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.

  • Scotland
    1974–1984
    #547
    in 1984
  • Ireland
    1967–1967
    #393
    in 1967
  • South Australia
    1952–1972
    #722
    in 1972

Popularity data from National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Shelagh 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
#2,114
1950
Peak year
1950
22 that year
First recorded
1942
Last recorded
1999
All-time count
510
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shelagh

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

ShelseaSherlinSheilaghSheinaShelsyShealynSheilySheylinShealynnSherekaSheldonShellbySheniseSheilynSheillaSherenaShemaiahSheliahShelbeeSherineSheccidShelinaSherriaShenell

Sibling names for Shelagh

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 Shelagh

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