Shelley

Where Shelley comes from

From Old English, meaning "clearing on a bank".
— Wiktionary's entry for Shelley
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1892
    First appearance
    #1,278 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1920
    Shelley Winters born
    American actress
  3. 1931
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  4. 1949
    Shelley Duvall born
    American actress
  5. 1972
    Peak, #126
    2,384 babies named Shelley — more than any year before or since.
  6. 1977
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #226.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, of mostly before 1930 usage.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Sheldon.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, of 1930s and later usage, also explained as a variant of Shirley or Michelle.
  • A diminutive of the female given name Rochelle.
  • A number of places:
  • A city in Bingham County, Idaho, United States.
Namesakes
  • Shelley Duvall · American actress, 1949–2024
  • Shelley Winters · American actress, 1920–2006
  • Shelley Long · American actress and comedian, born 1949
  • Shelley Hennig · American actress and model, born 1987
  • Shelley Moore Capito · United States Senator from West Virginia, born 1953

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.