Meaning and background
The story behind Sheila
Sheila is an anglicised form of the Irish name Síle, placing it in the wider Cecilia name family. The English pronunciation is normally SHEE-luh, with the emphasis at the beginning. It is a proper personal name rather than a descriptive dog word, and its Gaelic spelling history gives it a more precise background than any personality association attached to it.
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About Sheila
Recorded as a dog’s name
Sheila appears in 5 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ʃilə/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/ʃilə/ · primary stress on syllable 1SH IY1 L AH0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.