first name
SHELBY
of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census
Of the 136,597 people named Shelby, 85.3% reported their origin as White, 4.5% as Hispanic or Latino and 4.3% as Black. 93% are female. These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.
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Shelby peaked in 1991, when 10,744 babies got the name.
At least 165,279 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.
Shelby by decade
Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1990s, when it ranked #90. The largest share of babies named Shelby, 39.9%, were born between 1981 and 1996, as millennials.
Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.
Where Shelby is most common
Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Shelby has been most common in Kentucky (2.3×), Tennessee (1.9×), and Arkansas (1.8×), and least common in District of Columbia (0.19×).
157,779 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.
Either side of Shelby
Spelled almost the same
6 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Shelby, most common first.
Also a last name
As a last name, Shelby ranks #3,008 of 156,621, with 11,673 people. See Shelby as a last name
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