Shirley

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Shirly in CO Colombia, FR France, AR Argentina and 2 more and שירלי in IL Israel.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Shirley is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese given name1.2M records spelled Shirley33 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Peru, Argentina

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish

  Also written Shïrlëy, Shïrley, Shírley, Shîrlëy, Shïrlëÿ

• French given name76K records spelled Shirley6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, United Kingdom

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Shïrlëy, Shïrley, Shirlèy, Shīrlëy

• German given name49K records spelled Shirley2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, United Kingdom

  Also written Şhirley

• Polish given name25K records spelled Shirley31 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Shirly, Ширли, Shirli, Ширлі, Širli

• Hindi given name24K records spelled Shirley5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Canada

  Languages: Hindi, Sinhala, Urdu

  Also written Shirlëy

75 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Shirley is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Shirley (Derby, Hampshire, Surrey, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire); first attested William de Schirle 1219 AssY

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Old English; bright meadow; originally a boy's name

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• English, ‘shire meadow’. Originally this was a surname and masculine first name particularly associated with Yorkshire. It was probably first used as a girls’ name by Charlotte Bronté in her novel Shirley (1849). This and more recently, presumably, the fame of the film actress Shirley Temple, spread the name widely.

  as a name·Irish first names

• In English, places, for example in Derbys., Hants, Surrey, and the W

  as a name·A dictionary of surnames

• In English, places, for example in Derbys., Hants, Surrey, and the

  as a name·The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Shirley Boothb. 1898USAmerican actress (1898–1992)
• Shirley Jacksonb. 1916USAmerican writer (1916-1965)
• Jean Hagenb. 1923USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (1923–1977)
• Shirley Templeb. 1928USAmerican actress and diplomat (1928–2014)
• Shirley Jonesb. 1934USAmerican singer and actress
• Shirley MacLaineb. 1934USAmerican actress
• Shirley Knightb. 1936USAmerican actress (1936-2020)
• Shirley Basseyb. 1937GBWelsh singer
• Shirley Eatonb. 1937GBBritish actress
• Shirley Hendersonb. 1965GBBritish actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,181 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Shirley?

We estimate roughly 458 thousand people bear Shirley (counting its spellings and scripts) across 8 countries in our records.

In which country does Shirley have the most bearers?

We estimate about 359 thousand people bear Shirley in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled shirley.

Where is Shirley most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Shirley is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 583 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Shirley compared with other names?

In the United States, Shirley is the 111th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Shirley a male or female name?

Shirley is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Shirley mean?

Recorded meaning: English, originally a surname meaning ‘shire meadow’; later popularized as a girls’ name by Charlotte Brontë and Shirley Temple.