Shirley

alternative Sherley · alternative Shurley

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] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv], page 72

2. rareA 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.

   2 more examples

   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 been blessed)—[…]

   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 stuff."

   1951, Alice Tisdale Hobart, The Serpent-Wreathed Staff, Bobbs-Merrill, page 50

4. Various places in England:
   1. A village and civil parish in Derbyshire Dales district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK2141).
   2. A suburb of the borough of Croydon, Greater London (OS grid ref TQ3565).
   3. A hamlet in Sopley parish, New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SZ1798).
   4. A suburb of Southampton, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU4013).
   5. A suburban town in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, West Midlands, historically in Warwickshire (OS grid ref SP1278).
5. Various places in the United States:
   1. A town in Van Buren County, Arkansas.
   2. An unincorporated community in Kings County, California.
   3. An unincorporated community in El Paso County, Colorado.
   4. An unincorporated community in McLean County, Illinois.
   5. A town in Hancock County and Henry County, Indiana.
   6. A town in Piscataquis County, Maine.
   7. A town and census-designated place in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
   8. An unincorporated community in Polk County, Minnesota.
   9. An unincorporated community in Washington County, Missouri.
   10. A hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York.
   11. A hamlet in Erie County, New York.
   12. An unincorporated community in Charles City County, Virginia.
   13. An unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia.
   14. An unincorporated community in Brown County, Wisconsin.
6. A suburb of Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

1. humorousinformalnot comparablesurely

   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)