Shirley - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. (s)hir-ley, sh-irl-ey ] The girl name Shirley is pronounced as SHERLiy ^KEY. Shirley is an English name of Old English origin. Shirley has the meaning meadow shire; bright meadow. From the elements 'scir' shire, county, bright ; 'leah' wood, clearing, meadow. The first name is derived from the surname, itself originally a local name from a place in England so called, possibly from Derbyshire, Hampshire, Surrey, and the West Midlands. The first name was adopted in the mid 19th century, and was originally a male name. It later gained popularity, but as a female name, after Charlotte Brontë wrote her novel Shirley (1849), in which the parents first chose the name in the hopes of a baby boy, but when the baby turned out to be a girl, they nevertheless kept the choice of the name. The name was later popularized through the fame of the US child actress Shirley Temple (1928-).

The short form Shirl (English), the pet forms Shelley (English), Sherri (English), and Sherry (English), and the spelling variants Sherley (English) and Shirlee (English) are forms of the name.

Shirley is a classic favorite. At present it is still somewhat popular as a baby name for girls, though not to the extent it was previously. At the height of its usage in 1935, 3.897% of baby girls were named Shirley. Its ranking then was #2. The baby name has since experienced a marked decline in frequency, and is of very light use in recent times. In 2007, its usage was only 0.013% and its ranking #962, but it was nevertheless the most popular within all girl names in its group. Shirley has predominantly been a girl name, though in the past century it has also been used for boys. In 1957, Shirley as a girl name outnumbered its use as a boy name by 151 times.

Baby names that sound like Shirley include the English Sherley, the English Shirlee, the Irish Sérlait, the English Sharell, the English Sharlotte, the English Sharrell, the English Sharyl, the English Sherill, the English Sherrel, the English Sherrell, the English Sherrelle, the English Sherril, the English Sherrill, the English Sherryl, the English Sheryl, the English Sheryle, the English Shiral, the Welsh Ceril, the English and German Cheryl, the English and French Cyrille, the English Sheryll, the English Shirl, the Slavic Cirila, the English Cyrilla, and the English Sheryell.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Shirley: SH as in "she (SH.IY)" ; ER as in "hurt (HH.ER.T)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"

Details of famous persons named Shirley:
Actress Shirley Jones, born 31 March 1934, Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
Actress Shirley MacLaine, born Shirley MacLane Beaty, 24 April 1934, Richmond, Virginia.
Auto Racer Shirley Muldowney, born Shirley Roque, Schenectady, New York.
Politician Shirley Chisholm, born Shirley Anita St. Hill, 30 November 1924 - 1 January 2005, Brooklyn, New York.

Popularity Trend
for Shirley
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Shirley
in 2007