Shirley (name)

= Given name =

Before the publication of the novel "Shirley" by Charlotte Brontë in 1849 Shirley was an uncommon, but distinctly male name and would have been a very unusual name for a woman. Today it is regarded as a distinctly female name and an uncommon male name.

The use of Shirley as a popular given name in the 1950s was emphasized through the television sitcom Laverne & Shirley.

*"Shirley" (novel), by Charlotte Brontë (1849)
*Shirley Abicair, entertainer and writer
*Shirley Abrahamson, judge
*Shirley Babashoff, swimmer
*Shirley Bassey, singer
*Shirley Crabtree, [male] British wrestler ("Big Daddy")
*Shirley Clamp, Swedish pop singer
*Shirley Jones, actress
*Shirley Kwan, Hong Kong cantopop
*Shirley MacLaine, actress
*Shirley Manson, singer, lead vocalist of the band Garbage
*Shirley Povich, [male] sportswriter
*Graeme Strachan ("Shirley" Strachan), lead singer of 1970s Australian rock band Skyhooks
*Shirley Temple, child actress
*Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, British politician
*Shirley Yeung, 2001 Miss Hong Kong, TVB actress

Surname

*Shirley is a rather uncommon surname, with pockets of Shirley's living in Idaho, North Carolina, and Canada.
**Shirley is the surname of the title character in "Anne of Green Gables", a novel published in 1908 by Lucy Maude Montgomery about an orphan girl in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. Notably, there are no Shirleys listed in current (2007) telephone books for the entire province. It is likely Montgomery had heard the name associated with the neighboring province of Nova Scotia.

*Drew Shirley, guitarist
*Jerry Shirley, English drummer
* [http://www.randallshirley.com Randall Shirley] is a noted Canada-based travel journalist and editor
*Simon Shirley, Australian decathlete
*Steve Shirley, (Dame Stephanie Shirley), UK businesswoman

In fiction

*Shirley the Loon, a fictional character in "Tiny Toon Adventures"
*Shirley, the surname of the title character in "Anne of Green Gables"
*Shirley Fenette, a character in the anime "Code Geass"
*Shirley, a fictional character in "The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3"