Shirley
/ˈʃɜː(ɹ)li/adverb
Shirley is spelled S-H-I-R-L-E-Y: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, Shirley means “surely” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in Shirley?
| Letters | 7: S-H-I-R-L-E-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is Shirley?
Shirley appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce Shirley?
- /ˈʃɜː(ɹ)li/
Shirley has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Shirley.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does Shirley mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
informalsurely
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does Shirley come from?
A pun on surely and the name Shirley; probably inspired by the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, which has the exchange: "Surely you can’t be serious." "I am serious – and don’t call me Shirley."
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).