Shelley
Shelley is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 11 births. Its best rank was 126th, in 1972.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 110.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 19642,821 births
- Best rank
- #126in 1972
- Since 1892
- 74,326people given the name
The story in the numbers
72,573 girls have been named Shelley in the United States since 1892, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1964, with 2,821 births — 0.15% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 11 births in 2024, against 2,821 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1966, and the 1960s alone account for 34%. It has spent 54 of 145 years in the top 1,000.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,753 boys have also been given it, 2.4% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Shelley | |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 11 | |
| 1900s | 5 | |
| 1910s | 32 | |
| 1920s | 95 | |
| 1930s | 363 | |
| 1940s | 2,473 | |
| 1950s | 18,227 | |
| 1960s | 24,856 | |
| 1970s | 17,283 | |
| 1980s | 6,814 | |
| 1990s | 1,757 | |
| 2000s | 431 | |
| 2010s | 174 | |
| 2020s | 52 |
In 1964, its biggest year
Shelley was the 143rd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1964 were Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen and Patricia. See all of 1964.
Names that rose and fell with Shelley
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Wendiepeak 1970
- Tereasapeak 1964
- Cheripeak 1960
- Wendolynpeak 1966
- Janenepeak 1970
- Lanettepeak 1964
- Lynettapeak 1970
- Treasapeak 1967
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.