Shelley

Shelley is the 2,577th most common surname in the United States, shared by 13,694 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 21,800.

By the numbers

People: 13,694
Rank: 2,577th
How common: 1 in 21,800
Per 100,000: 4.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

From Old English, meaning "clearing on a bank".

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Shelley described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 81.7%
Black, not Hispanic 9.9%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.0%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.9%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)British Romantic poet
Mary Shelley (1797–1851)English writer
Barbara Shelley (1932–2021)British actress
Rachel Shelley (born 1969)English actress and model
Alex Shelley (born 1983)American professional wrestler
Pete Shelley (1955–2018)British singer-songwriter
George Ernest Shelley (1840–1910)English geologist and ornithologist
Carole Shelley (1939–2018)British actress

People named Shelley with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Shelley

Also a first name

Shelley has been given to 74,339 American babies as a first name since 1892, peaking in 1964. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.