Shirley
An English place name, Old English scir “bright” plus leah “clearing”; Charlotte Brontë’s novel made it a girl’s name.
Popularity, 1880–2025
A surname and Brontë novel name that child superstar Shirley Temple detonated in the mid-1930s, the textbook case of a celebrity naming wave.
Shirley appears in the national records from the very first year, 1880. It has ranked among the top 100 names for American girls in every year from 1918 to 1963. It spent 14 years inside the top 10. Its biggest year was 1935, when 42,366 newborn girls received the name, ranking it No. 2 nationally. All told, 695,934 Americans have been given the name since 1880.
Related names
Other spellings on record: Shirlee (5,714), Shirlie (1,288), Shirly (1,069) (total births since 1880)
Other names that share a story: Shelly
Explore Shirley interactively →By the decade
| Decade | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 179 | No. 371 |
| 1890s | 535 | No. 346 |
| 1900s | 1,710 | No. 196 |
| 1910s | 12,742 | No. 89 |
| 1920s | 98,602 | No. 9 |
| 1930s | 229,380 | No. 2 |
| 1940s | 171,780 | No. 9 |
| 1950s | 108,807 | No. 19 |
| 1960s | 38,078 | No. 70 |
| 1970s | 10,520 | No. 193 |
| 1980s | 5,072 | No. 380 |
| 1990s | 3,692 | No. 509 |
| 2000s | 2,735 | No. 778 |
| 2010s | 1,752 | No. 1205 |
| 2020s | 799 | No. 1452 |
Births and rank shown for girls, the sex more often given the name. The Social Security Administration omits name–year combinations with fewer than five births.
🍼 Enjoying this? Buy my baby a diaper
Data: U.S. Social Security Administration national baby-name file, 1880–2025.