Shelia
Masculine · “blind”
Shelia is given to girls far more often — 47,780 girls against 111 boys since 1880. See Shelia as a girl name
Shelia entered the US charts in 1954, peaked at #2476 in 1965, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Shelia?
Shelia first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Shelia alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Shelia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Shelia most popular?
Shelia peaked in 1965, reaching #2476 nationally. See the whole 1965 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caecus to Shelia
The story of Shelia
Caecilia became Síle in Irish, and English speakers wrote what they heard as Sheila. The name spread through Ireland, Britain and Australia — where it briefly became a general word for a woman — and reached America in the twentieth century. Shelia is the transposed spelling, which appears in American records in real numbers from the 1930s and peaked in the mid-1960s, running as a genuine parallel name rather than a scattering of mistakes.
Meaning
blind
Through Sheila, from the Irish Síle, which is the Irish form of the Latin Caecilia — from caecus, 'blind'. The Roman family name Caecilius carried the same root, and the fourth-century martyr Cecilia made it a saint's name across Europe.
How the name formed
- caecus
- Caecilia
- Síle
- Sheila
- Shelia
Related forms: Síle · Sheila · Cecilia · Cecilia
Pronouncing Shelia
SHEE-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Shelia and Sheila are said identically, which is exactly why the transposition survives.
Nicknames for Shelia
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
- 1954
- Most boys named
- 196511 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2476reached in 1965
- Change vs 1970
- +40.0%7 in 1971, 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.
Shelia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Síle in Irish — related form
- Sheila in English — spelling variant
- Cecilia in Italian — related form
- Cecilia in Spanish — related form
Shelias among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Shelia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Shelia 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
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What they receive
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Shelia
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Shelias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Shelia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Shelia in 2025?
- Shelia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Shelia with classmates?
- Shelia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shelia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shelia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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