Definition of "Shirley"

Hold vp they head, vile Scot, or thou art like / Neuer to hold it vp againe! the spirits / Of valiant Sherley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my Armes;

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv], page 72

Shirley Blythe was with Una Meredith and both were rather silent because such was their nature. Shirley was a lad of sixteen, sedate, sensible, thoughtful, full of a quiet humour.

1921, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 2, in Rilla of Ingleside

Shirley Keeldar ( she had no Christian name but Shirley; her parents, who had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage, Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had been blessed) - - -

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […]

"Why a girl like you should be named Shirley is beyond me. You haven't a ruffle or a furbelow anywhere in your nature." "Is that meant for an insult?" she asked, flushing angrily. "No, it's just that it's incongruous. You are the 'give us this day our daily bread' sort of person. Shirley is party stuff."

1951, Alice Tisdale Hobart, The Serpent-Wreathed Staff, Bobbs-Merrill, page 50

Shirley the pepper mills are whipped away by the peppier after use, so no danger there. But what about the candles?

2001 February 18, Tim Hall, “Spilero 15/2”, in uk.media.radio.archers (Usenet)