Quote Originally Posted by dowofbuchanan View Post
hello again thanks for the information and entertainment ... quick one for you ive got a name that research shows is mainly english but sometimes irish ... my stepsisters surname is shirley ... her dad is a short freckled flame head that burns looking at a lightbulb so when he claims to be irish i believe him ...
As far as I can tell, the surname is of Anglo-Saxon etymology. The ley suffix is almost always a dead giveaway. According to most sources it is derived from scir meaning bright and leah meaning clear. That does not suggest they aren't Irish, of course. There are hundreds of Irish surnames that are not Irish in origin.