How Many People Are Named Shela?
An estimated 1,087 people in the United States have the first name Shela. It is almost exclusively a female name. The average bearer is 56 years old, and Shela peaked in popularity in 1950 with 44 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Shela as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Shela paired with any surname.
Estimated Living Americans
1,087
About 1 in 315,321 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Rare
Predicted Gender
Female
100.0% confidence
Average Age
56
years old
Peak Year
1950
44 births
Total Registered
1,398
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Shela
Shela is almost exclusively a female name. Out of 1,398 total births registered, 100.0% were female.
Shela as a female name
Ranked #20,110 in 2007
5 female births in 2007
Peak: 1950 (44 births)
Shela: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Shela span from the 1930s to the 2000s, covering 8 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 1960s, when 337 babies were registered. Shela has declined significantly from its peak in the 1960s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Shela by Decade
How has Shela tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
Shela by State
Birth registrations for Shela span all 8 states and territories in the SSA database. The highest counts are in Texas, California, Mississippi. The lowest are in Tennessee, New York, North Carolina. On average, about 15 Shelas were registered per state.
Shela + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Shela as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Shela
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
Shela: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shela?
We estimate approximately 1,087 people named Shela are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 315,321 Americans share this first name.
Is Shela a common name?
Shela is classified as "Rare" and is more popular than 90.6% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 1,398 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Shela most popular?
Shela reached peak popularity in 1950, when 44 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Shela is approximately 56 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Shela a female name?
Shela is predominantly female. 100.0% of people with this name are female. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Shela Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Shela Smith, Shela Johnson, Shela Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
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