How popular is the baby name Marsheila in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Marsheila.

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Popularity of the baby name Marsheila


Posts that mention the name Marsheila

How do you feel about your name, Marsheela?

Here’s a crazy coincidence: While I was putting yesterday’s post on Marsheila together, I got an email from a 52-year-old Californian named Marsheela.

Here’s what she said about her name:

My mother gave me the name Marsheela after her grandmother who was Chinook Indian. She told me the name means morning glory. I was the only Marsheela around, all thru school and adulthood, I would get mixed comments from, what a beautiful name to your mother must not have liked you. Luckily my husband loved the name! I will say it was difficult thru school not having a common name.

Thank you, Marsheela!

(Marsheela would have been born in the early ’60s — several years after the 1957 Broken Arrow episode that presented the name as Native American. Was the TV show an influence here? Hard to say, though it does seem possible. Marsheela didn’t mention what her great-grandmother’s birth name was specifically.)

Mystery baby name: Marsheila (Solved!)

Here’s a triple-name mystery from 1957.

The most popular of the three names was Marsheila:

  • 1961: 5 baby girls named Marsheila
  • 1960: 22 baby girls named Marsheila
  • 1959: 6 baby girls named Marsheila
  • 1958: 10 baby girls named Marsheila
  • 1957: 32 baby girls named Marsheila [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted

While it wasn’t the top girl-name debut of the year — that was Tierney — it did come in second.

Lower down on the debut list we see Marshelia:

  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 6 baby girls named Marshelia
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: 6 baby girls named Marshelia
  • 1957: 18 baby girls named Marshelia [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted

And below that is one-hit wonder Marsheela:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 11 baby girls named Marsheela [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted

All told, over 60 baby girls got one of these three names in 1957.

Multiple spellings often point to an audio source (e.g., radio, TV) as opposed to a visual source (e.g., book, magazine). Beyond that, though, I don’t have any good theories about where these names came from.

Anyone know?

marsheela, broken arrow, 1957
Marsheela (played by Donna Martell)

UPDATE, 8/10/15: Commenter Frank B. made quick work of this one! Turns out Marsheela was a character in the 1957 “Apache Girl” episode of the TV show Broken Arrow. In the episode, Marsheela was the niece of Apache chief Cochise. (He tried setting up an arranged marriage for her, but ultimately allowed her pick a husband for herself.)