Shirley
A surname usually taken from places named Shirley, meaning a bright or white clearing or meadow.
The #1,292 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 11,341 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Shirley is an English locational surname from places called Shirley, especially in Derbyshire and Hampshire. The place-name is usually explained from Old English elements meaning either "bright/clear" or "white" plus "lea" or "lēah," a clearing, meadow, or woodland clearing. So the name can be understood as "bright clearing," "white meadow," or in some explanations "shire clearing," depending on how the first element is analyzed.
History
Historical sources link the surname to families taking their name from the manor of Shirley in Derbyshire, and also to the place-name forms in Hampshire and elsewhere. The name appears in medieval records in spellings such as Scherlay and Shirle, showing the expected shift from place-name to hereditary surname. It became established as a gentlemanly English surname, and later spread widely through Britain and the English-speaking world.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same surname can point back to more than one Shirley place, so not every Shirley family necessarily comes from the same exact village.
From the historical record
“SHIRES, genit. of Shire, g.v. , SHIRLEY (Eng.) Bel. to Shirley ; or Dweller at I the Bright or White Lea [O.E. scir -h ledh'\ 2 the Shire- or Parish-Lea [O.E. scir, district, parish, shire] -Shirley, Hants, was Shirle, a.d. 1326-7; Shirley, Derby, was Scherlay in the late 14th cent.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)