Name Shelley - meaning, origin, numerology

In many baby name books, Shelley is listed as meaning "From the meadow on the ledge" or "clearing on a bank" sometimes truthful and pretty. It is Old English in origin. As with many other names (Ashley, Courtney, etc.), Shelley is today a name given almost exclusively to girls after historically being male. Shelley is also a transferred surname used by those in Essex, Suffolk and Yorkshire, particularly in settlements where a wood/clearing was beside a ledge or hillside. Notable people with the name include:

Surname:

• Alexander Shelley, a British conductor
• Alex Shelley, stage name of professional wrestler Patrick Martin
• Barbara Shelley, British actress
• George Ernest Shelley, an ornithologist
• George M. Shelley, American mayor of Kansas City, Missouri 1878-1879
• George Shelley (singer), English singer (Union J)
• Harry Rowe Shelley, an American composer
• Howard Shelley, a British pianist
• John Shelley, U.S. politician
• Joshua Shelley, American actor
• Mary Shelley, English novelist author of Frankenstein and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Norman Shelley, English actor
• Percy Shelley (potter), English potter
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet and husband of Mary Shelley
• Pete Shelley, the lead singer and songwriter for the Buzzcocks
• Rex Shelley, Singaporean author
• Richard Shelley, English Catholic under Elizabeth I
• Steve Shelley, drummer of Sonic Youth

Given name:

• Shelley Chaplin, Australian wheelchair basketball player
• Shelley Duncan, Yankees player
• Shelley Duvall, American actress
• Shelley Hennig, American actress
• Shelley Jensen, American television director and producer
• Shelley Long, American actress
• Shelley Malil, Indian American actor
• Shelley Rudman, British athlete
• Shelley Sandie, Australian basketball player
• Shelley Tanaka, Canadian author and editor
• Shelley Winters, American actress

Fictional characters:

• Shelley Marsh, a secondary character on the Comedy Central show South Park
• Shelley Unwin, a character in the British TV series Coronation Street
• Shelley Winters, a main character in the popular webcomic Scary Go Round
• Shelley (tortoise), a tortoise on Blue Peter

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English: transferred use of the surname, the most famous bearer of which was the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). The surname is a local name from one of the various places (in Essex, Suffolk, and Yorkshire) named in Old English as the ‘wood (or clearing) on (or near) a slope (or ledge)’. The name is now almost exclusively female, in part no doubt as a result of association with Shirley (the actress Shelley Winters was born in 1922 as Shirley Schrift), and in part due to the characteristically feminine ending -ie, -y.

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