Shayleigh
A feminine name derived from the combination of Shay and Leigh.
Name Census estimates that about 771 living Americans carry the first name Shayleigh. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shayleigh today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shayleigh births was 2009 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shayleigh. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shayleigh with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
771
~ 1 in 444,558 Americans
Peak year
2009
45 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,225
Tracked since 1991
Census
Shayleigh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 652 people with the first name Shayleigh, which placed it at #17,077 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,077
National first-name rank
People counted
652
652 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shayleigh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayleigh is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shayleigh described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shayleigh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.2% · 523
- Two or more races9.4% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 42
- Black or African American2.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 11
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 2
Popularity
Shayleigh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shayleigh from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 331 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shayleigh by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shayleigh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shayleighs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, Indiana, Tennessee recorded the most babies named Shayleigh, while Tennessee, Indiana, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shayleigh
The name Shayleigh is a modern variant of the English name Shelley, which itself is a locational surname derived from the parish of Shelley in Yorkshire, England. The name Shelley is thought to have originated from the Old English words "scielic" meaning "clearing" or "meadow," and "leah" meaning "woodland" or "grove."
The earliest recorded instances of the name Shayleigh can be traced back to the late 20th century, emerging as a creative spelling variation of the more traditional Shelley. While there are no known historical figures of great significance bearing the name Shayleigh, the name Shelley has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Shelley was the renowned English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). His works, such as "Ozymandias" and "Ode to the West Wind," have become literary classics and have had a profound impact on the poetic tradition.
Another noteworthy individual with the name Shelley was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), the author of the groundbreaking Gothic novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus." Her work is considered a pioneering work of science fiction and has been widely studied and adapted for various media.
In the realm of film, Shelley Winters (1920-2006) was an accomplished American actress who won multiple Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards for her performances in movies like "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue."
Shelley Long (born 1949) is an American actress best known for her role as Diane Chambers on the popular sitcom "Cheers," for which she earned an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe nominations.
In the world of music, Shelley Fabares (born 1944) was a successful American singer and actress who gained fame in the 1960s, starring in the TV series "The Donna Reed Show" and recording several Top 40 hits.
While the name Shayleigh may be a relatively recent invention, it carries with it the rich heritage and literary associations of its parent name, Shelley, which has been a part of the English language for centuries.
People
Shayleigh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shayleigh as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shayleigh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shayleigh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 771 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shayleigh going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 444,558 US residents.
Is Shayleigh a common name?
We classify Shayleigh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 782 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shayleigh most popular?
The single biggest year for Shayleigh was 2009, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shayleigh is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shayleigh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 652 people with the name Shayleigh, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,077 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shayleigh in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shayleigh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shayleigh appears almost entirely female. Of the 651 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shayleigh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shayleigh is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.4%) and Hispanic (6.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shayleigh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shayleigh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.2% (523 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shayleigh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shayleigh a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shayleigh in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Shayleigh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shayleigh in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shayleigh can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Shayleigh?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.