Shirley is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.
Shirley is a well-known name in the US, but is still special. It is currently only given to every ten thousandth girl, and therefore ranks at 1,287 in the SmartGenius statistics. This means there are 1,286 girls names that are more common, but also tens of thousands that are much rarer. In total, there are currently 682,960 people – children, adults and seniors – named Shirley living in the United States, which is approximately 0.20 % of the entire population.
History tends to focus on the most famous and best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Shirley is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, Shirley has reached the SmartGenius top ranking #2 more than once, although the last time was some while ago, way back in the last century in 1936. But even though the peak of its popularity was many decades ago, the name Shirley has been given to newborn girls every year since records began. Shirley is of exceptional enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the20th century.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Shirley was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
The popularity of the name Shirley peaked long ago, but the name has nevertheless arrived in the 21st century. In 2022, it ranked #1,443 in our statistics - perhaps a far cry from when your grandparents or great-grandparents were kids and Shirley made it into the top ten more than once, but still: traditional names often prove to be perennial favorites - so, maybe it's only a matter of time before Shirley tops out again.
Regardless of where you live in the US, chances are you know someone called Shirley. Because: There are women and girls named Shirley in every state in the USA. If this does not sound particularly spectacular to you, you should know that of the more than 50,000 different female first names that occur in the USA, just 537 are recorded in each individual state, so the name Shirley is definitely something very special. In some regions it even makes it into the top 10 of the most popular female first names, for example in Arkansas, where Shirley ranks on place 8, making it one of the most common female first names in the entire state. The greatest chance of meeting Shirley, however, is in Vermont, where one in 120 girls and women bears this beautiful name – that is far above average – in the entire USA it is only one in 228, women and girls and in Nevada, where the name is least represented in relation to the population, you even have to ask an average of 897 women and girls for their name before you once get Shirley as an answer.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter S is a very popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 9.3% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letter A is more common for girls' names.
With seven letters, the name Shirley has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
That means that if 9.3% of all girls' names start with an S, this initial letter occurs nearly three times as often as all other letters on average. And by the way: Of all the girls' names that start with an S, Susan is the most common.
If your name is Shirley and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Shirley, you can simply say:
Sun
Hat
Igloo
Rocket
Lion
Elephant
Yoyo
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Shirley
Shirley
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
S
H
I
R
L
E
Y
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
S
H
I
R
L
E
Y
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Shirley sounds like this:
