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 [ 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 is of 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-). Shirley has 23 variant forms. Variant forms of Shirley include Cherly, Shir (used in Hebrew too), Shirelle, Shirleen, Shirlena, Shirlene, Shirli, Shirlie, Shirlina, Shirline, Shirlyn, and Shirlynn. Other English forms include the short form Shirl, the pet forms Shelley, Sherri, and Sherry, and the spelling variants Shaylee, Sherley, Sherli, Sherly, Shirely, Shirlee, and Shirly. 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 2008, its usage was only 0.015% and its ranking #911, but it was nevertheless the most popular within all girl names in its group. In 2008, Shirley was more regularly used than the next ranked name, the English Shaylee, by 5.839% . 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 Sherli, the English Sherly, the English Shirlee, the English Shirli, the English Shirlie, the English Shirly, the name Saril, the English Scarlette, the Irish Sérlait, the English Sharell, the English Sharelle, the English Sharlotte, the English Sharrell, the English Sharyl, the English Sherill, the English Sherrel, the English Sherrell, the English Sherrelle, and the English Sherril. Details of famous persons named Shirley: 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)"   |
