Shirlene
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Meaning
a modern American elaboration of Shirley (Old English, bright clearing) with the fashionable early-20th-century suffix -lene, as in Darlene
How popular is Shirlene around the world?
In the United States, Shirlene is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source. At the 2022 census, 5,897 people in Brazil were named Shirlene, ranked 2,440th, with a median age of 40.
Shirlene is on the official records of Brazil.
United States
under 5 a year
In the United States, Shirlene is not on the Social Security record for 2020 to 2025: names under 5 in a year are withheld at source.
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Shirlene has stayed rare in US records the whole time: no peak decade to name.
Births with a Social Security record. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration
Brazil
1 in 34,000
At the 2022 census, 5,897 people in Brazil were named Shirlene, ranked 2,440th, with a median age of 40.
Among people named Shirlene living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
people alive at the 2022 census, by decade of birth
People alive and resident in Brazil at the 2022 census, a living-population count, not births; names under 20 are withheld at source. Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
New Zealand
last on record 1968
Shirlene is not on the 2025 record for New Zealand, where names under 10 in a year are excluded at source.
share of that year’s name registrations
First given names from New Zealand birth registrations, grouped by registration year; any name under 10 in a year is excluded at source. Shares divide by Stats NZ’s count of births registered to mothers living in New Zealand, under 1% below the registry’s own count. Source: Department of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), baby name popularity over time
South Australia
last on record 1971
Shirlene is not on the 2017 record for South Australia, whose registry publishes every name given that year.
The count never rose above 3 in a year, too few to chart.
Births registered in South Australia (not all of Australia) by first name and year of registration, 1944–2017, from the state’s Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, which publishes every name down to a single birth in capitals; a spelling its export repeats inside a year is counted once, and from 2018 only a top 100 is published, so the series ends at 2017. Source: Consumer and Business Services (South Australia), popular baby names
Not on the record in Spain, Mexico City, Argentina, Puerto Rico, England and Wales, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and Poland: those registries withhold small counts, so rare uses may sit below their floors.
Not on the Chile record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 5 registrations in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Montevideo record for 1940 to 2011: that registry withholds nothing, so this spelling was not given there in those years. Not on the France record: nametree keeps spellings that reached 20 births in some year, so rarer uses are not shown. Not on the Austria record for 1984 to 2025: Statistik Austria publishes every first name down to a single birth, so this name was not given there in those years (before 2010 the record covers babies with Austrian citizenship only). Not on Norway’s list: Statistics Norway lists only first names carried by 200 or more living people, so rarer names are not shown.
When you meet Shirlene
Most people given the name Shirlene in the United States were born between 1940 and 1969. The Shirlene you meet today is most often in her 60s or 70s.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Shirlene deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Shirlene truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Shirlene fits with your family’s names and surname.
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