Shelly

Shelly began as an English place name meaning a clearing on a slope or ledge. Long used as a surname and occasionally given to boys in honor of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, it migrated across the Atlantic and settled firmly into the midcentury American maternity wards. By the time it hit its stride, the spelling with a single y had become an entirely self-standing given name.

A Shelly is readily imagined behind the wheel of a hatchback with a laminated parking pass. The name belongs largely to Generation X and the tail end of the baby boom, carrying the easy cadence of nineteen-sixties playground roll calls. It suggests someone who will organize the office retirement potluck without being asked twice. The name rarely appears on anyone who currently requires a car seat.