first name
SHELLY
of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census
Of the 75,244 people named Shelly, 83.6% reported their origin as White, 6% as Black and 3.4% as Hispanic or Latino. 98.8% are female. These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.
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Shelly peaked in 1964, when 4,127 babies got the name.
At least 86,610 babies have been given the name since 1882. 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.
Shelly by decade
Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1960s, when it ranked #216. The largest share of babies named Shelly, 53.2%, were born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X's birth years.
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 Shelly is most common
Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Shelly has been most common in North Dakota (2.7×), Oklahoma (2.4×), and Montana (2.4×), and least common in Rhode Island (0.31×).
81,966 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 Shelly
Spelled almost the same
8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Shelly, most common first.
Also a last name
As a last name, Shelly ranks #6,852 of 156,621, with 4,726 people. See Shelly as a last name
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