Shylee
A feminine name of unknown origin, potentially meaning "shy one".
Name Census estimates that about 794 living Americans carry the first name Shylee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shylee today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shylee births was 2009 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shylee. 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.
People living today
794
~ 1 in 431,681 Americans
Peak year
2009
52 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,856
Tracked since 1990
Census
Shylee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 681 people with the first name Shylee, which placed it at #16,519 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
#16,519
National first-name rank
People counted
681
681 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shylee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shylee is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Shylee 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 Shylee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.5% · 487
- Hispanic or Latino9.4% · 64
- Two or more races7.8% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.8% · 26
- Black or African American2.8% · 19
Popularity
Shylee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shylee 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 344 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
Shylee 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 Shylee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Shylees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Shylee, while Utah, Ohio, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shylee
The given name Shylee is a relatively modern spelling variation of the English name Shelley, which itself is derived from the Old English words "scielic" meaning "meadow" and "leah" meaning "clearing" or "field." The name Shelley can be traced back to the 12th century in England, where it was originally a locational surname referring to someone who lived near a meadow clearing.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the name Shelley gained popularity as a given name, particularly for girls, likely inspired by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). The spelling variation Shylee emerged in the late 20th century, possibly as a more feminine or unique spelling of the traditional Shelley.
While the name Shylee does not have any recorded historical references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, the earlier form Shelley has a few notable bearers throughout history. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name was Sir Philip Shelley (c. 1370-1453), an English knight and Member of Parliament during the 15th century.
Another prominent figure was the aforementioned Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), who is considered one of the greatest lyric poets in the English language and is known for works such as "Ozymandias" and "Ode to the West Wind." His wife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was the author of the renowned Gothic novel "Frankenstein."
In more recent history, Shelley Winters (1920-2006) was an American actress who won Academy Awards for her supporting roles in "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959) and "A Patch of Blue" (1965). Shelley Duvall (born 1949) is an American actress and producer best known for her roles in films such as "The Shining" (1980) and "Popeye" (1980).
While the spelling Shylee is relatively uncommon, it has been used by a few notable individuals, such as Shylee Saville, an Australian professional golfer who has competed on the LPGA Tour.
People
Shylee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shylee 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
Shylee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shylee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 794 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shylee 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 431,681 US residents.
Is Shylee a common name?
We classify Shylee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 805 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shylee most popular?
The single biggest year for Shylee was 2009, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shylee 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 Shylee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 681 people with the name Shylee, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,519 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 Shylee 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 Shylee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shylee leans strongly female. 668 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 9 male bearers (1.3%). 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 Shylee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shylee is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.4%) and Two or More Races (7.8%). 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 Shylee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shylee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (487 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 Shylee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shylee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shylee 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 Shylee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shylee 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 Shylee 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 are called Shylee?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.