Shelly

Where Shelly comes from

The dictionaries list Shelly as a given name — a surname from Old English, variant of Shelley — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1916
    First appearance
    #4,417 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1937
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
  3. 1966
    Peak, #89
    3,856 babies named Shelly — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1975
    Shelly Cole born
    American actress
  5. 1976
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #145.
  6. 1980
    Shelly Martinez born
    American professional wrestler, professional wrestling valet, model, and actress
In the dictionary
  • A surname from Old English, variant of Shelley.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname, of mostly pre-1930 usage.
  • A female given name transferred from the surname, of 1930s and later usage, variant of Shelley.
Namesakes
  • Shelly Martinez · American professional wrestler, professional wrestling valet, model, and actress, born 1980
  • Shelly Cole · American actress, born 1975
  • Shelly Kagan · American philosopher, born 1956
  • Shelly Johnson · American cinematographer, born 1958
  • Shelly Stokes · American softball player, born 1967

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.