Fewer than five US girls were named Shelia in 2025, so it does not appear in that year’s SSA list for girls. Its best rank for girls was #170, reached in 1959. That year also had the most girls given the name: 2,283. For comparison, it was #10,057 in 2015 and #242 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Shelia in 107 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1915 with 5 babies. In all, 47,891 US babies have been given the name, 99.7% of them girls and 0.2% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1960s, with 18,504 babies named Shelia.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 69 US girls were named Shelia; the busiest of those years was 2017, with 16.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Shelly (86,610 babies since 1880), Shellie (10,859 babies since 1880) and Shelli (6,983 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Sheliah, Sheilia and Shylie are summarised on this page.