Word.ws English Dictionary

Shelby

/ˈʃɛlbi/

Shelby proper noun: a surname from Old English. Also the ellipsis of Shelby County.

Proper noun

Shelby

  1. A surname from Old English.
  2. A female given name transferred from the surname.
    • As they walked, Shelby reached down and gently took Alan's hand to hold. They warmly exchanged a smile with each other just before Shelby looked down and Alan blushed. Whenever she was with Alan he made her feel like an innocent girl again.2008, Raymond Smith II, An American Odyssey, →ISBN, page 70
  3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  4. A census-designated place in Shelby County, Alabama.
  5. A census-designated place in Cedar Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana.
  6. A minor city in Pottawattamie County and Shelby County, Iowa.
  7. A village in Oceana County, Michigan.
  8. A city in Bolivar County, Mississippi.
  9. An unincorporated community in Linn County, Missouri.
  10. A city, the county seat of Toole County, Montana.
  11. A village in Polk County, Nebraska.
  12. A town in Orleans County, New York.
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  1. A city, the county seat of Cleveland County, North Carolina.
  2. A city in Richland County, Ohio.
  3. An unincorporated community in Austin County, Texas.
  4. A town and unincorporated community therein, in La Crosse County, Wisconsin.
  5. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Shelby Township.

Also used as

Shelby is also the ellipsis of Shelby County.

Synonyms of Shelby

Origin of Shelby

From a medieval name, of obscure origin, yet likely an alteration of Middle English Selby, Salibi (“dweller of the willow place”), from salwe (“willow, sallow”) + -by (“settlement, farm”).

Words formed from Shelby

Phrases with Shelby

Questions about Shelby

What does Shelby mean?
Shelby means a surname from Old English.
What part of speech is Shelby?
Shelby is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Shelby?
Shelby is pronounced /ˈʃɛlbi/.

Words near Shelby in the dictionary

  1. Shelbourne
  2. Shelburne
  3. Shelburne County
  4. Shelburne Falls
  5. Shelburnes
  6. Shelby
  7. Shelby County
  8. Shelby knot
  9. Shelby knots
  10. Shelbyville
  11. Shelbyvillian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Shelby (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Shelby.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shelby. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.