Shelly Girl
How popular is Shelly?
#5,721 girl name in 2025
21 baby girls were named Shelly in the US in 2025, making it the 5721st most popular girl name.
Shelly popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #5,721 for girls (▼ 1163 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 21 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling fast (-53% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #3,478 in 2015, #5,001 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1964 (4,080 girls) |
| Highest rank | #89 in 1966 |
| First recorded | 1916 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.0% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Shelly counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Shelly family of names ranked #2,928 for girls in 2025 (#2,668 the year before), with 34 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Shelly | 21 | 62% |
| Shelley | 13 | 38% |
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 Shelly is most popular
Babies named Shelly per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Washington: 0.0 per 1,000 (5 girls)
- New York: 0.0 per 1,000 (5 girls)
- California: 0.0 per 1,000 (7 girls)
Shelly by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 5 | #4,415 |
| 1920s | 47 | #2,698 |
| 1930s | 194 | #1,160 |
| 1940s | 748 | #614 |
| 1950s | 8,795 | #188 |
| 1960s | 35,661 | #89 |
| 1970s | 25,533 | #94 |
| 1980s | 9,099 | #186 |
| 1990s | 2,732 | #538 |
| 2000s | 1,029 | #1,299 |
| 2010s | 423 | #2,975 |
| 2020s | 154 | #4,503 |
Girl names about as popular as Shelly
Questions
- Is Shelly a boy or girl name?
- Shelly is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Shelly were girls.
- How popular is the name Shelly?
- 21 baby girls were named Shelly in the US in 2025, making it the 5721st most popular girl name.
- When was Shelly most popular?
- Shelly peaked in 1964, when 4,080 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #89 in 1966.
- How many people are named Shelly?
- 86,610 babies have been named Shelly in the US since 1880. We estimate about 78,268 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 57.
- Where is Shelly most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Shelly was most common in Washington, at 0.0 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.