Shirley
An English feminine diminutive of Cecilia meaning "bright meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 250,929 living Americans carry the first name Shirley. It is a predominantly female name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Shirley today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shirley births was 1935 (42,800 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shirley. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Shirley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Shirley is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 9,551 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Shirley is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Shirleys were born before 1962.
- • Compared to the 1930s, recent registration numbers for Shirley have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
251K
~ 1 in 1,366 Americans
Peak year
1935
42,800 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1993 SSA rank
#1,453
Tracked since 1880
Census
Shirley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 360,152 people with the first name Shirley, which placed it at #138 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#138
National first-name rank
People counted
360K
360,152 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
119.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shirley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shirley is White at 72.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.1%) and Hispanic (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Shirley described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Shirley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.7% · 261,898
- Black or African American18.1% · 65,282
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 12,432
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 10,800
- Two or more races2.0% · 7,185
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2,555
Gender
Gender distribution for Shirley
Shirley leans heavily female at 98.6% of total registrations, but 9,551 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Shirley as a male name
- Ranked #7,503 in 1993
- 7 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1935 (435 births)
Shirley as a female name
- Ranked #1,453 in 2024
- 151 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1935 (42,365 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shirley appears almost entirely female. Of the 360,153 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Shirley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shirley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 232,289 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Shirley by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Shirley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 122 | 179 | 301 |
| 1890s | 175 | 535 | 710 |
| 1900s | 216 | 1,710 | 1,926 |
| 1910s | 1,256 | 12,742 | 13,998 |
| 1920s | 2,300 | 98,601 | 100,901 |
| 1930s | 2,911 | 229,378 | 232,289 |
| 1940s | 1,473 | 171,780 | 173,253 |
| 1950s | 622 | 108,807 | 109,429 |
| 1960s | 309 | 38,077 | 38,386 |
| 1970s | 103 | 10,520 | 10,623 |
| 1980s | 52 | 5,073 | 5,125 |
| 1990s | 12 | 3,692 | 3,704 |
| 2000s | 0 | 2,734 | 2,734 |
| 2010s | 0 | 1,752 | 1,752 |
| 2020s | 0 | 666 | 666 |
Geography
Where Shirleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Shirley, while Alaska, Nevada, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13,476 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Shirley
The given name Shirley is derived from the English surname Shirley, which itself was a habitation name taken from the parish of Shirley in Derbyshire, England. The place name Shirley is thought to be derived from the Old English words "scir" meaning "bright" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing", thus Shirley can be interpreted as meaning "bright meadow".
The name Shirley first gained prominence in the 12th century when it was used as a surname by the aristocratic Shirley family of Derbyshire. The first recorded use of Shirley as a given name dates back to the late 16th century when it started being used as a masculine name.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Shirley was Sir Thomas Shirley (1564-1628), an English soldier and traveler who served as an ambassador to various European courts. Another notable early bearer was James Shirley (1596-1666), an English dramatist and poet who wrote several popular plays during the reign of King Charles I.
In the 18th century, the name Shirley began to be used more frequently as a feminine name, likely due to its association with the literary works of Frances Sheridan (1724-1766), an Irish writer and playwright who wrote the novel "The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph" in which the main character was named Shirley.
Two famous historical figures named Shirley include Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005), an American politician and author who was the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Congress in 1968, and Shirley Temple (1928-2014), an American actress who was a popular child star during the Great Depression and later became a diplomat.
Other notable individuals named Shirley throughout history include Shirley Graham Du Bois (1896-1977), an American author and playwright who was married to civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois, Shirley Jackson (1916-1965), an American author known for her novels and short stories exploring themes of psychological horror and domestic life, and Shirley Strickland (1925-2004), an Australian author and educator who wrote several children's books.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Shirley
People
Shirley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shirley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Shirley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shirley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 250,929 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shirley going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,366 US residents.
Is Shirley a common name?
We classify Shirley as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 695,797 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shirley most popular?
The single biggest year for Shirley was 1935, when 42,800 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shirley is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shirley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 360,152 people with the name Shirley, or 119.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #138 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Shirley in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Shirley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Shirley appears almost entirely female. Of the 360,153 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Shirley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shirley is White at 72.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.1%) and Hispanic (3.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Shirley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Shirley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.7% (261,898 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Shirley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shirley a female name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Shirley in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Shirley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shirley in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Shirley can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Shirley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.