Shelton
A masculine name of English origin meaning "flat-topped ridge".
Name Census estimates that about 8,730 living Americans carry the first name Shelton. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Shelton today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shelton births was 1972 (185 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shelton. 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 Shelton with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Shelton is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 172 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
8.7K
~ 1 in 39,262 Americans
Peak year
1972
185 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,195
Tracked since 1880
Census
Shelton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,240 people with the first name Shelton, which placed it at #3,058 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
#3,058
National first-name rank
People counted
7.2K
7,240 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shelton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shelton is Black at 51.9%. The next largest groups are White (39.9%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Shelton 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 Shelton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.9% · 3,754
- White39.9% · 2,892
- Two or more races3.3% · 238
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 152
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 122
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 82
Gender
Gender distribution for Shelton
Shelton leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 172 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shelton as a male name
- Ranked #5,195 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1972 (179 births)
Shelton as a female name
- Ranked #18,875 in 2013
- 5 female births in 2013
- Peak: 1997 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shelton leans strongly male. 6,996 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 250 female bearers (3.5%).
Popularity
Shelton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shelton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 1,534 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shelton 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 Shelton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sheltons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas recorded the most babies named Shelton, while New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 322 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shelton
The name Shelton originates from Old English and has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon era, dating back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the words "scylf" meaning "shelf" or "ledge," and "tun" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement." Together, these words form the meaning "a settlement near a ledge or shelf."
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Shelton can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name was likely bestowed upon individuals living in areas with prominent geological features such as cliffs or ledges.
In the Middle Ages, the name Shelton was primarily associated with individuals from the English counties of Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Staffordshire, where settlements bearing the name can still be found today.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Shelton. One of the earliest was Shelton Laurence (c. 1540-1616), an English churchman and writer who served as the Archdeacon of Salisbury in the late 16th century.
Another prominent figure was Shelton Benjamin (1690-1738), an American colonial educator and minister who founded the Collegiate School in Savannah, Georgia, which later became the University of Georgia.
In the literary world, Shelton Mackenzie (1805-1881) was a Scottish journalist and biographer who wrote extensively on the lives of notable figures such as Charles Dickens and Samuel Johnson.
The name also has a connection to the arts, with Shelton Brooks (1886-1975), an American painter and printmaker known for his depictions of urban life in New York City during the early 20th century.
In more recent times, Shelton Benjamin (born 1975) is an American professional wrestler who has competed in organizations such as WWE and Ring of Honor, further adding to the legacy of this historic name.
People
Shelton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shelton 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
Shelton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shelton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,730 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shelton 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 39,262 US residents.
Is Shelton a common name?
We classify Shelton as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,122 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shelton most popular?
The single biggest year for Shelton was 1972, when 185 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shelton is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shelton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,240 people with the name Shelton, or 2.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,058 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 Shelton 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 Shelton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shelton leans strongly male. 6,996 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 250 female bearers (3.5%). 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 Shelton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shelton is Black at 51.9%. The next largest groups are White (39.9%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Shelton most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shelton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.9% (3,754 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 Shelton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shelton a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Shelton in the SSA data are male. 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 Shelton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shelton 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 Shelton 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 Shelton as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Shelton, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.