Shilah
Feminine
Shilah is a spelling of Shiloh, and Shiloh is a place in the Book of Joshua — the town where the Ark of the Covenant rested for centuries before Jerusalem existed. The name has been used by English-speaking Protestants since the Reformation, and this spelling peaks in 2007.
How old is the name Shilah?
Shilah first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Shilah alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 900 people named Shilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shilah most popular?
Shilah peaked in 2007, reaching #2822 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 3,095 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Where it comes from
From Shiloh to Shilah
The story of Shilah
Shiloh was the central sanctuary of Israel before the monarchy: the tabernacle stood there, Samuel was raised there, and the town's destruction is used as a warning by Jeremiah. In America the name acquired an entirely different weight after 1862, when the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee — named for a small log church — produced more casualties than all previous American wars combined. Both layers are present when the name is used here. Modern American use rose from the 1990s on both sexes, and the -ah spelling belongs to that period rather than to any older tradition.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not established. The Hebrew place name Shiloh has been connected to a root meaning tranquility or rest, which is the most cited reading, and separately to a much-argued phrase in Genesis 49 — 'until Shiloh comes' — whose grammar is genuinely obscure and which has been read as a place, a person, a title and a scribal error. An Apache derivation meaning 'brother' is sometimes offered for the Shilah spelling; it cannot be traced to any Apache-language source and should not be relied on.
How the name formed
- Shiloh
- Shilah
Related forms: Shilo · Shiloh
Pronouncing Shilah
SHY-lah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long i of shine. A second saying, shih-LAH with the stress at the end, is also heard on this spelling. The Shiloh spelling is more consistently front-stressed.
Nicknames for Shilah
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 200764 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2822reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- +66.7%20 in 2025, from 12
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.
Shilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shilo in Hebrew — related form
- Shiloh in English — spelling variant
Shilahs among us
people named Shilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Shilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Shilah
- #5917
- Shilah on the 2025 chart
- #838
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Shilah went to 20 girls in 2025, but Shyla and Shylah are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 122, which makes it the 838th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,079 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 13,174 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Shilah 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 Sophy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sophy climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sophy's path sketches the road Shilah is walking now.
Shilah 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
Shilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and easy to say and spell after one hearing.
- It has a genuinely ancient scriptural place behind it.
- It works on either sex, with real use on both in American records.
- Shiloh is the more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
- The Apache gloss circulated for this spelling is not documented.
- The American Civil War battle is an association many people make first.
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What they receive
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Shilah
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Shilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Shilah?
- Shilah is one of 3 recorded spellings. Shyla is the more common one — 79 births in 2025 against 20 for Shilah.
- How popular is the name Shilah in 2025?
- Shilah ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shilah?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Shilah — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shilah with classmates?
- Shilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shilah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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