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Shedric vs Sheila

American parents have registered 239,422 Sheilas since 1880, against 78 Shedrics. Sheila is still ahead, with 65 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shedric against Sheila, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shedric Sheila

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Sheila has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1907 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2005, when Shedric had 5 and Sheila had 240.

Side by side

  Shedric Sheila
Total US births 78239,422
Most in one year 88,807
Babies in 2025 under 565
Estimated living today 70190,000
Median age today 4963
Peak year 19721962
Best rank 3,622nd boys52nd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,645th
First recorded 19631907
Girls / boys 0 / 78238,774 / 648

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sheilas alive today are over 63; half the Shedrics are over 49. That is 14 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Shedric and Sheila.