Shirley’s Notebook: Personalized Journal for Shirley
Give Shirley a notebook that's unmistakably hers. Shirley's Notebook has her name in elegant script over a pink watercolor apple blossom cover.
- 160 lined pages
- 6" x 9" paperback
- Watercolor apple blossom cover with "Shirley's Notebook" on the front
- Printed and shipped by Amazon
Where does the name Shirley come from?
Shirley comes from an English surname, which itself came from a place name meaning “bright clearing”. It joins the Old English words scir, “bright”, and leah, “woodland, clearing”. It was originally a boys’ name, but Charlotte Brontë gave it to the heroine of her 1849 novel Shirley, and after that it was used more and more for girls.
Other forms of Shirley
Shirley doesn’t have many nicknames, though friends sometimes call her Shirl. It does have a few spellings, including Shirlee and Sherley. Its two parts, “bright” and “clearing”, make it a sunny name, and plenty of Shirleys simply keep it whole.
Well-known Shirleys
Shirley Temple was the biggest child star of the 1930s and later became a US ambassador. Dame Shirley Bassey sang three James Bond themes, including “Goldfinger”. And Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to the US Congress, in 1968, and the first to run for a major party’s presidential nomination.
Shirley’s popularity
Shirley is the name of the Depression years. It was already rising, but Shirley Temple sent it soaring: US Social Security data has it 17th in the 1920s and 4th in the 1930s, and Behind the Name says that by 1935 it was the second most common girls’ name in the country. More than 229,000 American Shirleys were born in the 1930s, so most Shirleys today are in their 80s and 90s.
A few more things about Shirley
The Shirley Temple, a non-alcoholic cocktail of ginger ale, grenadine and a maraschino cherry, was named after the child star, though she said she found it too sweet. In the Brontë novel, Shirley Keeldar is a wealthy heiress who jokes that she was given a man’s name because her parents wanted a son.
Gift ideas with Shirley in mind
- For a 90th birthday. Many Shirleys were born in the 1930s. A notebook for memories and family stories.
- For a singer. Song lists and performance notes, in honor of Dame Shirley Bassey.
- For a reader. A reading journal, starting with Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley.
- For a great-grandmother. A gift the whole family can help fill, with stories to pass on.
A notebook for every Shirley
Shirley’s Notebook works just as well for a teenager as for a grandmother. It’s 6" x 9", which fits in most bags, with 160 lined pages and no printed layout to work around. Use it as a diary, a school notebook, a planner or a place to collect quotes and ideas. A name on the cover turns an everyday notebook into something personal.
Why choose a personalized notebook?
A plain notebook is useful. One with her name on it is a gift. Seeing “Shirley’s Notebook” on the cover tells Shirley it was chosen for her, not grabbed off a shelf, and that small touch is often what makes people keep a notebook going instead of abandoning it after a week.
Frequently asked questions
How big is Shirley’s Notebook? 6" x 9", or about 15.2 x 22.9 cm. It’s a paperback with 160 lined pages inside.
Where do I buy it? Shirley’s Notebook is available on Amazon, which prints each copy to order and looks after delivery and refunds.
Do you have other names? We do, hundreds of them. Browse all name notebooks or read how to find a name on our personalized name notebooks page.
See Shirley's Notebook on Amazon
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