Shirley.
An English habitational surname
Meaning & usage
An English habitational surname
A male given name transferred from the surname.
A female given name transferred from the surname, popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Various places in England: A village and civil parish in Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK2141).
Various places in England: A suburb of the borough of Croydon, Greater London (OS grid ref TQ3565).
Various places in England: A hamlet in Sopley parish, New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SZ1798).
Various places in England: A suburb of Southampton, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU4013).
Various places in England: A suburban town in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, historically in Warwickshire (OS grid ref SP1278).
Various places in the United States: A town in Van Buren County, Arkansas.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Kings County, California.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in El Paso County, Colorado.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in McLean County, Illinois.
Various places in the United States: A town in Hancock County and Henry County, Indiana.
Various places in the United States: A town in Piscataquis County, Maine.
Various places in the United States: A town and census-designated place in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Polk County, Minnesota.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Washington County, Missouri.
Various places in the United States: A hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York.
Various places in the United States: A hamlet in Erie County, New York.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Charles City County, Virginia.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia.
Various places in the United States: An unincorporated community in Brown County, Wisconsin.
A suburb of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.
Where this word comes from
English place name from Old English sċīr (“county”) + lēah (“meadow”). Equivalent to shire + -ley (“lea”). More at shire, leigh.
surely
Where this word comes from
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."
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.