Shela
Feminine · “blind”
Shela drops the i that makes the vowel long, and the name it comes from has an unusual second career. Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, arrived in English through Irish emigration, and in Australia it became the ordinary colloquial word for a woman, which is a rare thing for a personal name to manage anywhere.
How old is the name Shela?
Shela first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Shela alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 1,200 people named Shela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shela most popular?
Shela peaked in 1950, reaching #1375 nationally. See the whole 1950 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Roman family name from the Latin word for blind to Shela
The story of Shela
Australian English took the name and made it a common noun sometime in the nineteenth century, on the same principle that made Jack a word for an ordinary man in England: a name common enough in one population becomes a way of referring to any member of it. Irish emigration to Australia was heavy and the name was very common among Irish women, and by the eighteen thirties it was being used generically. It is still current, informally, and it is one of very few personal names in any variety of English to become a plain noun for a whole sex. The spelling here is an American respelling and has nothing to do with any of that.
Meaning
blind
The Irish name is a form of Cecilia, which comes from a Roman family name built on the Latin word for blind. The reading is settled and slightly startling: Roman family names were frequently built from physical descriptions of a distant ancestor, and this one describes an ancestor who could not see. Nobody carrying the name since has been described by it.
How the name formed
- A Roman family name from the Latin word for blind
- Cecilia in the church and Sile in Irish
- Sheila in English, and a common noun in Australia
- Shela as an American respelling
Related forms: Sile · Sheila
Pronouncing Shela
SHEE-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long first vowel. Dropping the i makes the spelling suggest a short vowel, so a stranger reading it cold may well say SHEL-uh, which is not the name.
Nicknames for Shela
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
- 1935
- Most girls named
- 195044 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1375reached in 1950
- Change vs 2005
- 0.0%5 in 2007, 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.
Shela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sile in Irish — related form
- Sheila in English — spelling variant
Shelas among us
people named Shela 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
Shela 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
- The sound is entirely familiar once the vowel is established.
- It carries a genuine Irish history behind a very plain spelling.
- Shay is available as a short form and is thoroughly current.
- The dropped letter makes the vowel ambiguous, which the fuller spelling does not.
- In Australia the name is also an ordinary word for a woman.
- Sheila is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected into it.
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Shela
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Shelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Shela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shela in 2025?
- Shela is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Shela with classmates?
- Shela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shela? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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