A modern spelling variant of Shaylee or Shelly-style names, used mainly for sound and style.
Sheyli is a phonetic respelling that orbits several distinct name traditions simultaneously. Most directly, it evokes Shaylee or Shayleigh, anglicizations of the Irish "Síle" (pronounced roughly "SHEE-lah"), which is itself the Gaelic form of Cecilia — a name of Latin origin, possibly derived from the Roman family name Caecilius, connected to the Latin "caecus" meaning "blind."
Saint Cecilia, the patroness of musicians, carried this name into medieval veneration and gave it enduring dignity across Catholic Europe. Sheyli also resonates with the English surname-turned-given-name Shelley, which derives from Old English "scylf-leah" — "clearing on the shelf of land" — and which gained literary glamour through the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and, separately, through Shelley Winters and other twentieth-century actresses who made it feel modern and spirited. The "-i" ending on Sheyli softens all of these associations, giving the name a contemporary freshness that distances it just enough from its predecessors.
The spelling Sheyli is rare enough to be distinctive, falling into the tradition of parents who want a name that is phonetically familiar when spoken aloud but visually unique on paper — a name that introduces its bearer as someone who follows her own rules. It carries Irish musical heritage, Roman saintly gravity, and English pastoral imagery all in four letters, worn lightly enough that none of it overwhelms.