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.

It was further popularized in 1851–52 by its pseudonymous use by California Gold Rush writer Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe (Dame Shirley).

It was eventually brought to its highest popularity, in the 1930s, by the fame of child star Shirley Temple.

[citation needed] Their name comes from having lived in the parish of Shirley found in the counties of Derbyshire, Surrey, Hampshire and the West Midlands.