Shirlee
Shirlee was last recorded in 2024, when 5 babies were given it; 5,714 Americans have been recorded with it between 1915 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,140 Americans named Shirlee and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (37% of everyone recorded); the median is 75 years old and half are between 67 and 84.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Shirlee by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Shirlee?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,328, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
340 babies in 1935, the peak
Shirlee peaked in 1935, when 340 girls were given it, #347 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | #17,328 | under 0.01 |
| 2008 | 5 | #20,035 | under 0.01 |
| 2007 | 5 | #20,116 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 5 | #17,553 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 9 | #9,470 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 6 | #13,152 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 6 | #13,188 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 6 | #13,121 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,907 | under 0.01 |
| 1990 | 8 | #10,047 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (83)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 10 | #7,936 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,673 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,481 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 14 | #5,178 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,932 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,486 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 8 | #8,031 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,319 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,664 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 9 | #6,859 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 6 | #9,453 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,513 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,295 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,145 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 11 | #5,055 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 19 | #3,480 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 24 | #2,923 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 19 | #3,184 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 21 | #2,857 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 28 | #2,317 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 33 | #2,050 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 29 | #2,239 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 43 | #1,800 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 23 | #2,605 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 39 | #1,852 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 45 | #1,713 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 52 | #1,556 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 65 | #1,334 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 72 | #1,258 | 0.04 |
| 1957 | 80 | #1,184 | 0.04 |
| 1956 | 93 | #1,062 | 0.05 |
| 1955 | 64 | #1,270 | 0.03 |
| 1954 | 68 | #1,218 | 0.04 |
| 1953 | 77 | #1,110 | 0.04 |
| 1952 | 73 | #1,105 | 0.04 |
| 1951 | 104 | #887 | 0.06 |
| 1950 | 90 | #946 | 0.05 |
| 1949 | 104 | #859 | 0.06 |
| 1948 | 96 | #888 | 0.06 |
| 1947 | 116 | #812 | 0.07 |
| 1946 | 113 | #774 | 0.07 |
| 1945 | 97 | #763 | 0.07 |
| 1944 | 97 | #777 | 0.07 |
| 1943 | 119 | #703 | 0.09 |
| 1942 | 115 | #696 | 0.09 |
| 1941 | 98 | #710 | 0.08 |
| 1940 | 94 | #720 | 0.08 |
| 1939 | 129 | #590 | 0.12 |
| 1938 | 121 | #623 | 0.11 |
| 1937 | 155 | #533 | 0.15 |
| 1936 | 195 | #460 | 0.19 |
| 1935 | 340 | #347 | 0.32 |
| 1934 | 209 | #451 | 0.20 |
| 1933 | 129 | #565 | 0.13 |
| 1932 | 121 | #598 | 0.11 |
| 1931 | 139 | #557 | 0.13 |
| 1930 | 147 | #562 | 0.13 |
| 1929 | 148 | #564 | 0.13 |
| 1928 | 172 | #534 | 0.15 |
| 1927 | 185 | #517 | 0.16 |
| 1926 | 181 | #521 | 0.15 |
| 1925 | 183 | #528 | 0.15 |
| 1924 | 194 | #514 | 0.16 |
| 1923 | 170 | #554 | 0.14 |
| 1922 | 115 | #683 | 0.10 |
| 1921 | 91 | #769 | 0.07 |
| 1920 | 67 | #891 | 0.06 |
| 1919 | 43 | #1,132 | 0.04 |
| 1918 | 31 | #1,408 | 0.03 |
| 1917 | 14 | #2,412 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,507 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,745 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Shirlee a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Shirlee has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 83 years of records.
Girls and boys named Shirlee: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Shirlee, and how old are they?
2,140 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 37% of the 5,714 Americans ever recorded as Shirlee. The median Shirlee alive today is 75 years old; half are between 67 and 84.
The 2020 Census counted 3,017 people named Shirlee (3,008 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,832 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 704 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,060 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 223 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 111 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 15 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Shirlee born?
The states with the most babies named Shirlee are Illinois, California and Michigan, with 43% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 615 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| California | 549 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| Michigan | 293 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 280 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 276 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Iowa | 191 | not ranked | 1.8× |
| New York | 188 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Minnesota | 167 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Wisconsin | 165 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Washington | 135 | not ranked | 1.8× |
Where Shirlee is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Shirlee is most over-represented in Utah: since 1915 it was given 3.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Shirlee with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Shirlee?
Shirlee is a less common spelling of Shirley: SSA has recorded 5,714 Shirlee and 695,934 Shirley since 1880.
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 704,974 babies since 1880, Shirlee is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 133 babies recorded by SSA was a Shirlee (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Shirlee
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Shirlee and names like it
- Compare Shirlee and ShirleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1930sShirlee peaked in 1935.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Shirlee since 1910.
- The top names of 1935The year the most babies were named Shirlee.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Shirlee alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with SMost given first.