Shelby County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census the population was 195,085. The county seat is Columbiana. The county is named in honor of Isaac Shelby, Governor of Kentucky from 1792 to 1796 and again from 1812 to 1816.Shelby County is included in the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area. It ranks among the 100 highest-income counties in the United States, and is the fastest-growing county in the state.