Shirlee
Feminine · “bright clearing”
Shirlee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 5,709 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Shirlee is Shirley respelled, and the place name behind it means the bright clearing — a name that Charlotte Brontë turned from a boy's to a girl's in a single novel.
How old is the name Shirlee?
Shirlee first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Shirlee alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 2,400 people named Shirlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shirlee most popular?
Shirlee peaked in 1935, reaching #346 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From scir leah to Shirlee
The story of Shirlee
Shirley was a masculine surname-name until Charlotte Brontë's 1849 novel gave it to a heroine whose parents had wanted a son — the book says so directly. It became feminine within a generation, and rose enormously in America in the 1930s. The respellings followed, and Shirlee peaked around 1936.
Meaning
bright clearing
From the Old English scir, 'bright' or 'shire', and leah, 'wood' or 'clearing'. Both elements are ordinary and among the commonest in English place names. Several villages named Shirley preserve it, and the reading is undisputed.
How the name formed
- scir leah
- Shirley
- Shirlee
Related forms: Shirley · Shirlie
Pronouncing Shirlee
SHUR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Shirlee and Shirley are said identically.
Nicknames for Shirlee
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 1935340 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #346reached in 1935
- Change vs 2007
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Shirlee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Shirley in English — spelling variant
- Shirlie in English — spelling variant
Shirlees among us
people named Shirlee are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Shirlee sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The bright-clearing meaning is concrete and belongs to a large family of English place names.
- Its shift from masculine to feminine is documented in a single novel, which is rare.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Shirley is overwhelmingly the standard spelling.
- A child film star dominates the association for many people.
- It is sharply dated to the 1930s and 1940s.
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What they receive
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Shirlee
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Shirlees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,400 people named Shirlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shirlee in 2025?
- Shirlee is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Shirlee with classmates?
- Shirlee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Susan#1085 · Sarah#90 · Sandra#1207 · Stephanie#557 · Sharon#1250 · Shirley#1581 · Samantha#151 · Sophia#5
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shirlee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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