Name Awesome

Shiela

Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Shiela has been given to 4,408 babies in the U.S. since 1908. 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 1970, with 216 recorded.

Babies named Shiela, 2001

1 in 468,000

Shiela over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Shiela: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Shiela means

Shiela is a given name.

The naming story behind Shiela

Wikidata records Shiela as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q28401156, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,408 girls were recorded with the name Shiela between 1908 and 2001. Its highest annual count was 216 in 1970; its best national rank was #714 in 1970.

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 Shiela?

Shiela had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2001, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2001
1 in 468,000
8 of 3,742,181 births
Among girls only
1 in 225,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2001
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
324,236 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Shiela 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 2001 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 324,236 children born in 2001 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Shiela. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Shielas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Shiela was born before 1963 — so the typical Shiela is around 62 today.

Median birth year
1963
About 62 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
30.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
13.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,651
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 30.7% of all recorded uses (1,355).

Is Shiela 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 1970 (216)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#714
1970

Spellings of Shiela

Shiela is not the most common spelling — Sheila is, with 54.5% against Shiela's 1.0%.

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 Shiela is used

Across 1910–2025, Shiela was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 82,957 across all states with data. It was least common in South Carolina (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 33,333
  2. 2Indiana1 in 50,000
  3. 3Missouri1 in 50,000
  4. 4Ohio1 in 50,000
  5. 5Oklahoma1 in 50,000
  6. 6Arkansas1 in 100,000
  7. 7Colorado1 in 100,000
  8. 8Florida1 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. Shiela has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Shiela around the world

Where Shiela 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
    1964–1985
    #519
    in 1985
  • South Australia
    1947–1986
    #667
    in 1986

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

Shiela 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
#714
1970
Peak year
1970
216 that year
First recorded
1908
Last recorded
2001
All-time count
4,408
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Shiela

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

ShianneShifraShiraShivaniShilohGiselaArielaShilahShiloShirinShireenEstelaLeelaShiannRafaelaShirleeIselaShiannaKaelaMakaelaShirelJaelaShaelaAniela

Names with a curve like Shiela

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Shiela, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

LorindaGerriCherriJaneneLanetteFondaTrudiSherieCherrieMartyKandyMarti

Sibling names for Shiela

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 Shiela

Top names of 1970, Shiela's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1970Girls' names starting with S