Shirely vs Shirlene
American parents have registered 4,856 Shirlenes since 1880, against 231 Shirelys. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Shirely Shirlene
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Shirlene has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1923 to 2010. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1926, when Shirely had 8 and Shirlene had 16.
Side by side
| Shirely | Shirlene | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 231 | 4,856 |
| Most in one year | 13 | 159 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 140 | 3,400 |
| Median age today | 68 | 68 |
| Peak year | 1936 | 1956 |
| Best rank | 2,263rd girls | 782nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | unranked |
| First recorded | 1926 | 1923 |
| Girls / boys | 231 / 0 | 4,856 / 0 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
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Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Shirely and Shirlene.