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Shilpa vs Shirlee

American parents have registered 5,714 Shirlees since 1880, against 573 Shilpas. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shilpa against Shirlee, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shilpa Shirlee

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

Of the 94 years in which either name was published, Shirlee for 61 years and Shilpa for 33 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Shilpa Shirlee
Total US births 5735,714
Most in one year 30340
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 5502,200
Median age today 4075
Peak year 19731935
Best rank 2,455th girls346th girls
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19681915
Girls / boys 573 / 05,709 / 5

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 Shirlees alive today are over 75; half the Shilpas are over 40. That is 35 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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