Word.ws English Dictionary

Shirley

/ˈʃɜː(ɹ)li/

Shirley proper noun: an English habitational surname.

Proper noun

Shirley

  1. An English habitational surname
    • Hold vp they head, vile Scot, or thou art like / Neuer to hold it vp againe! the spirits / Of valiant Sherley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my Armes;1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (rare) A male given name transferred from the surname.
    • Shirley Blythe was with Una Meredith and both were rather silent because such was their nature. Shirley was a lad of sixteen, sedate, sensible, thoughtful, full of a quiet humour.1921, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 2, in Rilla of Ingleside
  3. A female given name transferred from the surname, popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.
    • Shirley Keeldar (she had no christian name but Shirley: her parents, who had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage, Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had...1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Fieldhead”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 294–295
    • "Why a girl like you should be named Shirley is beyond me. You haven't a ruffle or a furbelow anywhere in your nature." "Is that meant for an insult?" she asked, flushing angrily. "No, it's just that it's incongruous. You are the 'give us this day our daily bread' sort of person. Shirley is party...1951, Alice Tisdale Hobart, The Serpent-Wreathed Staff, Bobbs-Merrill, page 50
  4. A village and civil parish in Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK2141).
  5. A suburb of the borough of Croydon, Greater London (OS grid ref TQ3565).
  6. A hamlet in Sopley parish, New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SZ1798).
  7. A suburb of Southampton, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU4013).
  8. A suburban town in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, historically in Warwickshire (OS grid ref SP1278).
  9. A town in Van Buren County, Arkansas.
  10. An unincorporated community in Kings County, California.
  11. An unincorporated community in El Paso County, Colorado.
  12. An unincorporated community in McLean County, Illinois.
Show 11 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A town in Hancock County and Henry County, Indiana.
  2. A town in Piscataquis County, Maine.
  3. A town and census-designated place in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
  4. An unincorporated community in Polk County, Minnesota.
  5. An unincorporated community in Washington County, Missouri.
  6. A hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York.
  7. A hamlet in Erie County, New York.
  8. An unincorporated community in Charles City County, Virginia.
  9. An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia.
  10. An unincorporated community in Brown County, Wisconsin.
  11. A suburb of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Adverb

Shirley (not comparable)

  1. (humorous, informal) surely
    • Shirley the pepper mills are whipped away by the peppier after use, so no danger there. But what about the candles?2001 February 18, Tim Hall, “Spilero 15/2”, in uk.media.radio.archers (Usenet)

Forms of Shirley

alternative formSherley
alternative formShurley

Origin of Shirley

English place name from Old English sċīr (“county”) + lēah (“meadow”). Equivalent to shire + -ley (“lea”). More at shire, leigh.

A pun on surely and the name Shirley; probably inspired by the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, which has the exchange: "Surely you can’t be serious." "I am serious — and don’t call me Shirley."

Words formed from Shirley

Phrases with Shirley

Words that rhyme with Shirley

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Shirley

What does Shirley mean?
Shirley means an English habitational surname.
What part of speech is Shirley?
Shirley can be a proper noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce Shirley?
Shirley is pronounced /ˈʃɜː(ɹ)li/.

Words near Shirley in the dictionary

  1. Shirky principle
  2. shirl
  3. Shirland
  4. Shirland and Higham
  5. shirled
  6. Shirley
  7. Shirley card
  8. Shirley cards
  9. Shirley Holms
  10. Shirley poppies
  11. Shirley poppy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Shirley (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Shirley.wav.

Cite this entry: “Shirley.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shirley. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.