Shelby Girl
How popular is Shelby?
#649 girl name in 2025
444 baby girls were named Shelby in the US in 2025, making it the 649th most popular girl name. Another 41 boys got the name (#2,990 for boys).
Shelby popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #649 for girls (▲ 8 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 444 girls, 41 boys |
| 10-year trend | Falling fast (-59% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #299 in 2015, #501 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1991 (10,220 girls) |
| Highest rank | #33 in 1991 |
| First recorded | 1913 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 6% boys, 94% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.4% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Shelby counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Shelby family of names ranked #595 for girls in 2025 (#606 the year before), with 470 babies in all.
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Shelby is most popular
Babies named Shelby per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- West Virginia: 1.2 per 1,000 (32 girls)
- Kentucky: 0.8 per 1,000 (67 girls)
- Tennessee: 0.7 per 1,000 (106 girls)
- South Carolina: 0.6 per 1,000 (52 girls)
- Alabama: 0.6 per 1,000 (52 girls)
Shelby by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 46 | #2,832 |
| 1920s | 95 | #1,960 |
| 1930s | 6,077 | #119 |
| 1940s | 4,895 | #187 |
| 1950s | 3,075 | #489 |
| 1960s | 3,267 | #494 |
| 1970s | 5,970 | #300 |
| 1980s | 7,881 | #229 |
| 1990s | 71,995 | #33 |
| 2000s | 31,310 | #68 |
| 2010s | 11,216 | #184 |
| 2020s | 3,003 | #501 |
Girl names about as popular as Shelby
Questions
- Is Shelby a boy or girl name?
- Shelby is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 94% of babies named Shelby were girls.
- How popular is the name Shelby?
- 444 baby girls were named Shelby in the US in 2025, making it the 649th most popular girl name. Another 41 boys got the name (#2,990 for boys).
- When was Shelby most popular?
- Shelby peaked in 1991, when 10,220 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #33 in 1991.
- How many people are named Shelby?
- 165,279 babies have been named Shelby in the US since 1880. We estimate about 150,589 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 31.
- Where is Shelby most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Shelby was most common in West Virginia, at 1.2 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.