Shelah is the Latin transcription of two Hebrew names, sh-l-h and sh-l-ch . sh-l-h may also be transcribed as Shela.

Among early historical figures, this Hebrew name was used as a single name. For instance, the Biblical figures שלה ("Shelah" or "Shela") and שלח

Salah (Biblical figure)

Salah is an ancestor of the Israelites according to the Table of Nations in . He is thus one of the table's "seventy names". He is called Shelah in and Sala in the Septuagint and ....

 ("Salah" or "Shelah"),.

Another Hebrew name that has been rendered as "Shela" is שילא, as exemplified by the early Third Century Babylonian Rabbi Rav Shela

Rav Shela

Shela was a Babylonian teacher of the latter part of the tannaitic and the beginning of the amoraic period, and head of the school at Nehardea . When Abba Arika visited Babylon, he once officiated as an expounder for R. Shela at his public lectures...

"Shelah" has also served as a pseudonym in the form of "Shelah haKadosh", referring to Isaiah Horowitz

Isaiah Horowitz

Isaiah Horowitz, , also known as the Shelah ha-Kadosh after the title of his best-known work, was a prominent Levite rabbi and mystic.-Biography:...

, a 16th century Jewish mystic

Kabbalah

Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...

. In this case, the given name "Shelah" is a construct based on the initial letters of the Hebrew title of Horowitz' most influential work, Shnei Luchos HaBris .

In modern times, "Shelah" (in the form sh-l-ch) has become a surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

, as exemplified by Saharon Shelah

Saharon Shelah

Saharon Shelah is an Israeli mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Rutgers University in New Jersey.-Biography:...

(b. 1945 Jerusalem).