Shirl
Recorded 1915–1983 · United States
Shirl was most popular in 1964, when 216 American babies were given the name — ranking #1,213 that year. It was not recorded in 2025. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 1,771 people named Shirl.
Shirl over time
How old is the name Shirl?
Shirl first appears in Social Security Administration records in 1915, which makes it about 110 years old as a recorded American name. It has been recorded in 67 of the 111 years since. It was last recorded in 1983.
How many people are named Shirl?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 1,771 American births named Shirl between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 1,275 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Shirl in 2025?
Shirl was not recorded in 2025. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so fewer than five American babies were given it.
Is Shirl a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Shirl is a unisex name — 74.7% of the 1,771 Americans given it were girls and 25.3% were boys. It changed hands: since 1950 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
How old is someone named Shirl?
Roughly 1,275 Americans named Shirl are alive today — 72% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 63 years old, and half are between 61 and 69. That is a narrow band: Shirl arrived and faded within about a decade rather than staying in steady use.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Where Shirl is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Shirl on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org