girl's name
Shirley
SHER-lee
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 7
- Popularity Uncommon
- Births on record 704,082
Northern Ireland
#514
2011 births
Shirley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning bright clearing, and it was a boys' name until Charlotte Brontë used it for a heroine in 1849. Our data shows it tripling from ninth to second in America between 1933 and 1935, as Shirley Temple became a star.
- Shirley is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1935, when 42,801 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 24,928 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Shirley over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 301 |
| 1890s | 710 |
| 1900s | 1,926 |
| 1910s | 13,998 |
| 1920s | 100,902 |
| 1930s | 232,291 |
| 1940s | 173,253 |
| 1950s | 109,429 |
| 1960s | 38,387 |
| 1970s | 10,623 |
| 1980s | 5,124 |
| 1990s | 3,704 |
| 2000s | 2,735 |
| 2010s | 1,752 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 799 |
What Shirley means
Shirley means bright clearing, or shire meadow. It is an English place name built from elements for brightness or a shire and a woodland clearing, and it was a surname before it was a personal name.
Where Shirley comes from
Shirley is an English place name and surname, from scir — bright, or a shire — joined to leah, a clearing or meadow. It was used as a boys' given name in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as transferred surnames generally were. Charlotte Brontë changed that: her 1849 novel Shirley gives the name to a heroine whose parents, she writes, had wanted a son and used the name anyway, and the book made it a girls' name in a single stroke. It is one of the clearest documented sex-switches of any English name, and the masculine use had effectively vanished within two generations.
Shirley in use
Shirley peaked in the United States in 1935, when 42,801 babies were registered, and our year-by-year series shows the rise precisely: ninth place on 14,320 births in 1933, fourth on 22,841 in 1934, and second on 42,366 in 1935 — a tripling in two years that follows Shirley Temple's breakout in 1934 and her Academy Juvenile Award in early 1935. It now ranks 1583rd in the United States on 133 births, 4581st in England and Wales and 6412th in France, across 704,082 lifetime births.
How popular is Shirley?
In 2025, Shirley was given to 133 babies in the United States. It is used consistently but remains uncommon.
Where Shirley is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Shirley
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Shirley also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Shirley over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Shirley
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Shirley in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Shirley
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Shirley — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Shirley
What does the name Shirley mean?
Bright clearing — an English place name from scir, bright, and leah, a clearing.
Was Shirley ever a boys' name?
Yes, until Charlotte Brontë's 1849 novel Shirley gave it to a heroine and switched it decisively to girls.
Did Shirley Temple make the name popular?
Our data shows it going from ninth in 1933 to second in 1935, tripling in two years alongside her breakout — one of the clearest correlations we hold.
How popular is Shirley?
1583rd in the United States, down from a 1935 peak of 42,801 births.
How many syllables are in Shirley?
Shirley has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Shirley?
Shirley is usually shortened to Shirl.
Is Shirley a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Shirley currently ranks #1,583 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.