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The first name 
Sheila

Sheila is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Sheila is a well-known but special name!

Sheila is a well-known name in the US, but is still special. It is currently only given to every ten thousandth girl, and therefore ranks at 1,562 in the SmartGenius statistics. This means there are 1,561 girls names that are more common, but also tens of thousands that are much rarer. In the entire USA, approximately 232,968 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Sheila. That is 0.07 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Sheila

Sheila -
classic and modern at the same time

Who would have thought it? After many years of not appearing at all in the SmartGenius statistics, Sheila reached its highest rank ever in the year 1965 at #50. In other words: 7,931 newborn girls were named Sheila that year. Since then, it has been considered to be a universally popular name, chosen by a large number of happy parents every year. Although the times of its highest popularity are now many decades ago, Sheila is still going strong and has not been forgotten yet. We can only wait and see if there will be a new surprise in store and if Sheila will be able to top its all-time best ranking ever again.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Sheila was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Sheila - a popular player in the midfield

In 2022, Sheila ranked 1,499 in our SmartGenius statistics. In absolute figures, this means it was given to baby girls a total of 127 times. No one knows what names (or combinations of numbers and letters) will be popular 50 years from now, but given its consistent popularity, there is a good chance that Sheila will remain a universally popular name.

Sheila -
very special and well known across the entire USA

Everyone knows her, everyone loves her and still she’s different from the mainstream: Sheila occurs in every single state of the U.S. This may sound quite unspectacular at first, but in fact, of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Sheila is definitely something very special. However, at the same time, since the name does not appear in the top 100 most common first names in any single state, Sheila is not one of those names that one encounters in every neighbourhood, but stands out from the crowd, is noticeable and special without being strange or unknown. From Alaska to Florida, a total of 232,950 women and girls of all generations bear the name Sheila – that is one in 662. However, there are considerable regional differences – the name is far more popular than average in Vermont, where one in 408 women and girls is called Sheila, while it is particularly rare in Nevada, where you have to ask an average of 1,244 women for their name to get Sheila as an answer once.

Sheila has 6 letters 
and begins with an S

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a very popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 9.3% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter A is more common for girls' names.

With six letters, the name Sheila is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 9.3% of all girls' names start with an S, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the girls' names that start with an S, Susan is the most common.

Other names with 
S, h, e, i, l and a

If you take all the letters in the name Sheila – S, h, e, i, l and a – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Sheali or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Sheila

If your name is Sheila and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Sheila

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Sheila, you can simply say:

Sun

Hat

Elephant

Igloo

Lion

Apple

This is how the name Sheila is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Sheila in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Sheila

Sheila

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Sheila

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Sheila is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

S
H
E
I
L
A

Have you ever waved the name Sheila

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

S
H
E
I
L
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Sheila sounds like this: