Shylynn
A feminine name formed by combining the words "shy" and "lynn", suggesting a gentle or demure nature.
Name Census estimates that about 414 living Americans carry the first name Shylynn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Shylynn today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shylynn births was 2004 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shylynn. 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
414
~ 1 in 827,909 Americans
Peak year
2004
27 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,964
Tracked since 1988
Census
Shylynn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 323 people with the first name Shylynn, which placed it at #28,012 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
#28,012
National first-name rank
People counted
323
323 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shylynn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shylynn is White at 54.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (15.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Shylynn 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 Shylynn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.5% · 176
- Two or more races15.5% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 38
- Black or African American11.5% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.7% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 10
Popularity
Shylynn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shylynn from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 196 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
Shylynn 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 Shylynn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shylynn
The name Shylynn is a modern variant of the English name Shyleen, which in turn is derived from the Irish feminine name Síle. Síle is the Irish form of the Latin name Caelia, which was originally a Roman family name derived from the word "caelum," meaning "heaven" or "sky."
The earliest recorded use of the name Síle dates back to the 6th century in Ireland. It was a popular name among Irish women during the Middle Ages, and several notable figures bore this name. One of the most famous was Síle Ní Ghadhra, an Irish noblewoman and poet who lived in the 16th century.
As the name Síle evolved over time, various spelling variations emerged, including Sheelah, Sheila, and Shyla. The name Shylynn is a more recent spelling variation, likely created in the 20th century as a combination of the elements "Shyla" and "Lynn."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Shylynn or its variants. One of the earliest recorded was Shyla of Kildare, an Irish abbess who lived in the 6th century and founded a monastery in Kildare, Ireland.
Another notable figure was Sheila Naavi, an Indian writer and activist who lived from 1925 to 2008. She was a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement and worked tirelessly to promote women's rights and education.
In the realm of literature, there was Sheila Kaye-Smith, an English novelist and memoirist who lived from 1887 to 1956. She is best known for her novels set in the rural landscapes of Sussex, England.
Sheila E. Murphy, an American actress and singer, was also a notable bearer of the name. She lived from 1927 to 1999 and had a successful career in both film and music, appearing in several Hollywood productions and releasing several acclaimed albums.
Finally, Shyla Stylez was an American pornographic actress who lived from 1976 to 2017. While her given name was Amanda Gail Rodriguez, she adopted the stage name Shyla Stylez and became a prominent figure in the adult entertainment industry.
People
Shylynn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shylynn 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
Shylynn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shylynn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 414 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shylynn 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 827,909 US residents.
Is Shylynn a common name?
We classify Shylynn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 420 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shylynn most popular?
The single biggest year for Shylynn was 2004, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shylynn 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 Shylynn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 323 people with the name Shylynn, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,012 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 Shylynn 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 Shylynn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shylynn appears almost entirely female. Of the 331 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 Shylynn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shylynn is White at 54.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (15.5%) and Hispanic (11.8%). 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 Shylynn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shylynn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.5% (176 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 Shylynn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shylynn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Shylynn 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 Shylynn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shylynn 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 Shylynn 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 Shylynn?
Find out how many people share the name Shylynn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.