Shelva
About 1,131 American babies have been named Shelva since 1936, most of them around 1937. It has not appeared in the national data since 1980. About 580 Shelvas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 82.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Shelva boys named Shelva
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 1,131
- Estimated living today
- 580
- Median age today
- 82
- Peak year
- 1937
- Best rank
- 470th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1936
- Girls / boys
- 1,117 / 14
How old the living Shelvas are
born that year still alive today
Of the 1,131 babies given the name since 1936, about 580 are alive — 51 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1943 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where Shelva is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Shelva is most concentrated in West Virginia (27.6×), Virginia (5.7×), Pennsylvania (4.0×), North Carolina (3.2×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1937
The most popular girls’ names the year Shelva peaked:
Related names
Shelva against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.