More info about the name "Shirley"

Shirley originates in Old English language and means "sunny meadow". Initially, it was an old English surname and after that a masculine given name. That changed after Charlotte Bronte wrote her 1849 novel Shirley, where the main character of the same name is a girl and her parents named her Shirley because they wanted a boy. More recently, it was popularized as a feminine name by the American actress Shirley Temple.