Recorded 1915–2023 · United States
Shelia was most popular in 1959, when 2,293 American babies were given the name — ranking #323 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 47,891 people named Shelia.
Shelia first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1915, which makes it about 110 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 107 of the 111 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 47,891 American births named Shelia between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 40,554 are estimated to be alive today.
Shelia was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Shelia is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 8 births a year across 2021–2025 against 9 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Shelia is a girl’s name — 99.8% of the 47,891 Americans given it were girls and 0.2% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 100% girls and 0% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 40,554 Americans named Shelia are alive today — 85% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 64 years old, and half are between 59 and 70. That is a narrow band: Shelia arrived and faded within about a decade rather than staying in steady use.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Shelia on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org