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Girl · Old English
Shelly
Say it: SHEL-ee
Meaning
A spelling of Shelley, from an English surname and place name (Old English scylf 'ledge' + leah 'clearing').
Likelythe main view, with some doubt.
Most popular in the US in the 1960s and 1970s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1960s
In the United States
- 86,481 babies given this name since 1882
- At its height in 1966, about 1 in 439 girls
- 25 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Shelley, Shellie
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.