Girl · English surname
Shelby
Say it: SHEL-bee
Meaning
From an English surname, probably from a place name with Old Norse -bý 'farmstead'; the first element is uncertain.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
Mostly a boys' name before the 1980s; the film Steel Magnolias (1989) helped make it a popular girls' name.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1990s
In the United States
- 162,613 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1991, about 1 in 183 girls
- 647 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Shelbie, Shelbi
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.