Shelby

Shelby is a unisex given name: about 10% of people named Shelby are men and 90% are women, so a gendered salutation is a coin flip and the neutral form is the safe choice.

Mostly femaleHigh

Male 10%Female 90%

Verdict: Mostly female
Male / female split: 10% male / 90% female
Confidence: High (64 or more weighted country observations)
Most common in: United States, Great Britain
US births since 1880: 16,120 male / 144,394 female
Data: nam_dict (GFDL) + US SSA
Updated: 2026-09-11

How to address Shelby

To address Shelby when you do not know their gender, use the full name with no title: "Dear Shelby," in English, "Guten Tag Shelby," in German. About 10% of people named Shelby are men and 90% are women, so a gendered salutation is close to a coin flip, and the neutral form above is the safer choice.

Ready-made greetings in six languages

English

Dear Shelby,

German

Guten Tag Shelby,

French

Bonjour Shelby,

Spanish

Estimado/a Shelby:

Chinese

Shelby您好：

Japanese

Shelby様

English

Hi Shelby,

German

Hi Shelby,

French

Salut Shelby,

Spanish

Hola Shelby,

Chinese

Shelby你好：

Japanese

Shelbyさん

Greeting generator

This is a statistical estimate, not a statement about the gender, identity or correct form of address of any particular person.

Country breakdown

Gender of the name Shelby by country (nam_dict, 55 country columns)
Country	How common	Usually	Male share
United States	very common	woman's name	10%
Great Britain	rare	man's name	98%

United States birth data

16,120 male · 144,394 female · 160,514 births recorded

Male 10%Female 90%

Since 1980: 5% male.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shelby a male or female name?

Shelby is a unisex given name: about 10% of people named Shelby are men and 90% are women, so a gendered salutation is a coin flip and the neutral form is the safe choice.

How do I address Shelby in an email?

Is Shelby a unisex name?

Shelby is not a unisex name: 10% of people named Shelby are men. Shelby leans strongly female overall.

Sources

Gender by country: nam_dict, the c't first-names dictionary by Joerg Michael, roughly 44,000 names across 55 countries, licensed GFDL. US frequencies: United States Social Security Administration baby-name data, public domain. Method: how we classify names. Full dataset: data & licences. Data built 2026-09-11.

Cite this page

DearWho, "Is Shelby a male or female name?", https://dearwho.vercel.app/name/shelby (accessed 2026-09-11). Data: nam_dict (J. Michael, GFDL) and US SSA, built 2026-09-11.

BibTeX

@misc{dearwho_shelby,
  title  = {Is Shelby a male or female name?},
  author = {{DearWho}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://dearwho.vercel.app/name/shelby},
  note   = {Data: nam_dict (GFDL), US SSA public domain}
}