Shirley (name)
Shirley is a given name and a surname originating from the English place-name Shirley, which is derived from the Old English elements "scire" ("shire") or "scīr" ("bright, clear") and "lēah" ("wood, clearing, meadow, enclosure"). The name makes reference to the open space where the moot (an early English assembly of freemen which met to administer justice and discuss community issues) was held. Shirley was originally a male name, but its use in Charlotte Brontë's novel "Shirley" (1849) established it as a female name. Surname. Shirley is a surname, with pockets of Shirleys living in New Hampshire , Massachusetts, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Utah, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Canada, New Zealand, Alaska, and parts of Great Britain. A work on the genealogy of the various branches of the Shirley family was published as "Stemmata Shirleiana" by E. P. Shirley in 1841. Their name comes from having lived in the parish of Shirley found in the counties of Derbyshire, Surrey, Hampshire and the West Midlands.