Shayla
Feminine
Shayla is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 30,933 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Shayla is a modern American name built on the Shay- opening — a sound borrowed from Irish naming and given an ending that dozens of names of its decade shared.
How old is the name Shayla?
Shayla first appears in US birth records in 1950 — 75 years ago. The typical Shayla alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 30,500 people named Shayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shayla most popular?
Shayla peaked in 1999, reaching #267 nationally. Today it ranks #1777, 1,510 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Shay to Shayla
The story of Shayla
Irish surnames and sounds were heavily productive in late twentieth-century American naming, and the Shay- opening produced Shayla, Shayna, Shaylee and Shaylyn among others. Shayla appears in American registers from the 1970s, rose through the 1980s and peaked in the early 1990s, part of a broad turn toward invented names with Irish coloring.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
No settled origin. It is read as an elaboration of the Irish-derived Shay or Shea, from Ó Séaghdha, 'hawk-like' or 'admirable'; as a form of the Irish Síle, which is Cecilia; and as a coinage on Shay plus the -la ending. None is documented as the source.
How the name formed
- Shay
- Shayla
Related forms: Shaila · Sheila · Séaghdha
Pronouncing Shayla
SHAY-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. No pronunciation ambiguity in English.
Nicknames for Shayla
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1950
- Most girls named
- 19991,188 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #267reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- +0.9%113 in 2025, from 112
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Shayla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shaila in English — spelling variant
- Sheila in English — related form
- Séaghdha in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Shaylas among us
people named Shayla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 14,224 born in 2025 was named Shayla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Shayla
- #1777
- Shayla on the 2025 chart
- #822
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Shayla went to 113 girls in 2025, but Shaila is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 138, which makes it the 822nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 955 places above the chart.
- Shayla113
- Shaila25
About 1 girl in 11,647 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,224 for Shayla itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lesley test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shayla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lesley climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lesley's path sketches the road Shayla is walking now.
Shayla sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Shayla is headed
Shayla is easing off slowly — about 21% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Shayla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shayla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Shay is a genuine Irish-derived name available as a short form.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It is instantly readable while remaining uncommon.
- The origin is genuinely unsettled among several candidates.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s and 1990s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Shayla to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Shayla? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Shayla
Feminine · #1777 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shaylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 30,500 people named Shayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Shayla?
- Shayla is the most-used spelling in US records — 113 of the 138 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Shaila.
- How popular is the name Shayla in 2025?
- Shayla ranks #1777 among US girl names in 2025, with 113 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shayla?
- About 1 in every 14,224 US girls born in 2025 was named Shayla — 113 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shayla with classmates?
- Shayla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shayla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adore#1777 · Tess#1777 · Arizbeth#1777 · Jalayah#1777 · Katarina#1777 · Cosette#1777 · Yesly#1777 · Ronnie#1777
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shayla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shayla and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle