By decade. Change compares yearly averages, so the current partial decade is on equal
footing. Best rank is the name's best yearly rank within the decade.
Where Shelby is most popular
Girls named Shelby per 1,000 girls born in
each state, 2021–2025. National average: 0.295 per 1,000.
Strongest in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Vs national average well below below near national above well above no data
All 50 states and DC, sorted by rate. Counts are girls named Shelby born
2021–2025; the per-1,000 rate makes states of different sizes
comparable, and the last column shows each state against the national average.
State counts come from the Social Security Administration's state files, which omit any
state-year with fewer than five babies of a name, so small states can undercount slightly.
The story of Shelby
Shelby is uncommon for girls in the United States, ranked #649 in 2025 with 444 babies given the name. It is currently declining compared with a decade ago.
Since 1880, 165,279 American babies have been named Shelby, about 90% girls and 10% boys, making it a genuinely unisex name. Its peak came in 1991, when 10,744 newborns received the name, the signature sound of the 1990s.
The chart above shows the full history: the popularity view (births per 1,000 babies) is the honest comparison across generations, since total US births have changed enormously since 1880. Switch to the rank view to see where Shelby stood among all girls' names in any year, or use the compare tool to plot it against other names.
