Sheela
Feminine · “probably the Irish form of Cecilia”
Sheela arrives from two unconnected directions: an Irish name that descends from a Roman family name, and a Sanskrit word about conduct. American records hold both. The Roman side produced a patron saint by way of a sentence somebody read too quickly.
How old is the name Sheela?
Sheela first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Sheela alive today was born around 1976, making them about 49 years old. About 600 people named Sheela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sheela most popular?
Sheela peaked in 1959, reaching #2678 nationally. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Caecilia to Sheela
The story of Sheela
Cecilia is the patron saint of music because of a misreading. The antiphon for her feast quotes a line from her legend describing her wedding: while the instruments played, she sang in her heart to God alone — the point being that she was ignoring the music and praying. Read quickly, and detached from the sentence around it, the words look like a description of a woman singing along with the organ. By the late Middle Ages she was being painted at a keyboard, and by the sixteenth century she was the established patron of musicians, with academies, confraternities and eventually conservatories named after her, and odes written for her day. Purcell, Handel and Britten all set texts for it. The entire tradition rests on a clause that said the opposite of what it was taken to mean.
Meaningscholars disagree
probably the Irish form of Cecilia, or a Sanskrit word about character
The Irish Síle descends from Cecilia, whose Roman family name is traditionally connected to the Latin word for blind. The Sanskrit shila means conduct, character or moral discipline and is a real name in India. The two are unrelated and this spelling serves both.
How the name formed
- Caecilia
- Síle
- Sheela
Related forms: Síle · शीला
Pronouncing Sheela
SHEE-lah
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Both possible origins are said the same way, which is unusual for a spelling serving two unrelated languages.
Nicknames for Sheela
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 198827 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2678reached in 1959
- Change vs 2007
- 0.0%5 in 2015, from 5
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.
Sheela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Síle in Irish — related form
- शीला in Hindi — related form
Sheelas among us
people named Sheela are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Sheela sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Two syllables with front stress is easy to say and hard to mishear.
- It reads correctly on sight for speakers of English, Irish and Hindi alike.
- Six letters with no silent ones make it simple to spell aloud.
- Sheila is far commoner in English and will be written for it.
- The two possible origins are unrelated, so the meaning question has two answers.
- In Australian usage the commoner spelling is also a general word for a woman.
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Sheela
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Sheelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Sheela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sheela in 2025?
- Sheela is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Sheela with classmates?
- Sheela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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