What would be the Yiddish/Hebrew equivalent for Shirley and Libby?

Richard Stower
Yarmouth, Maine

SECHESTOWER, SPIERMAN, THAU, GRAF in Kolomyya area. KANNER, SCHMIDT in Dobrowa Tarnowska. GROSS and FELLNER in Chortkiv.

My grandmother Matilda, Aunt Tilly to those that knew her, was born in NYC as Rosa, for her grandmother. Anything is possible, but most likely something with the same initial sound. Shirley could be Shayna, or Szyfra or something like that. And Libby could be Liba (known as Liby in records - same name), or Laya or whatever.

Sally Bruckheimer

Sura is one possibility for Shirley

Bruce Brown
Falls Church, VA

I had two great grandmothers whose names were written as Lebe.  One had a granddaughter named after her whose name was Libby.

Robert Hanna
NYC

Most Libby's are named after a woman named Libe ( love or beloved ) pronounced "LEE-beh. sometimes shown as Liba . It is also possible that it could be Leah/Leye , but that is less likely . 

Shirley is most often Sarah i.e Sore/Sure/Surke/Sorl/Surl etc. , but it could also be Sheyndl (SHEYN-dl ) from sheyn ( pretty or beautiful ) which also yields Sheyne /Shana/Shane/Shena  in English . Shifre ( SHIF-reh ) is also  possible.

As others have said , there are many possibilities,  but the most common are Libe and Sore/Sure etc. 
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Henry H. Carrey

Shirley doesn't need any Hebrey equivalent today, as it is rather popular girls name in Israel.
means "song me".
Libbi, if you are interested, means "my heart".
Josef ASH, Israel

My great grandmother left Hamburg as Liebe, and US census records , and family notes, have her name as Libby.

Marc Friedman
Irvine CA

My name is Shirley after my ggmother Tzirl. The late great Prof Gerry Esterson told me it was a diminutive either of Sara or Tsipporah. 

Shirley Holton
London, England

MANKUNSKI, SHOCHET Simnas Lithuania, AJMINSKI Szczuczyn in Lomza Poland

My grandmother Shirley's hebrew name was Shumelah. Her grandfather was Shmuel/Samuel and I believe she was named for him.

Darren Lubotsky
Chicago
 

Libby was popular Americanized English for Leah

Andrew Sverdlove

On Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 06:50 AM, Bruce Brown wrote:

My mom's Hebrew-English pair was the same as yours, but I just wanted to point out that there were no set pairs of Yiddish and English names, though there were commonly used pairs.

Bruce Brown

I have to reply once more:
Shirli is the female Hebrew name. it appeared in the list of names in the Hebrew Dictionary
Your grandmother had another Hebrew name Shmuela, she had two names: one for day-day use and another for her grandfather memory.
Josef ASH, Israel

I have a different point of view .Many Jewish women in the Pale of Settlement were never given Hebrew names , just Yiddish ones  e.g. Sheyndl , Frume, Blume , Freydl and sometimes the Yiddish ones had Loshn Koydesh roots e.g. Sore, Chane , Khaye , Rokhl.
Most people in Jewish Gen are asking about their relatives from the Pale from 1850 - 1924 when this would be true . Were there people in the Pale  who gave their children purely Hebrew derived  names before Herzl ? Of course . However , given how Jewish Americans chose  Shirley, Jennie , Fannie , Zelda , Sydney, Melvin, Irving etc.  , it is highly unlikely that it occurred to many of them to see if they could look for an American name that meant something in Hebrew. What they wanted to do was to find " Yankee" names. So, if Sore , for example was  Shirley's birth name , there was no need to find an American name that derived from Hebrew like Shir-li.   Of course that all changed with the creation of the State of Israel. Nowadays , people look for Modern Hebrew derivations  all the time . 
Again , I am not saying that any theory is definitely impossible , only that certain theories  are much more common and likely than others . 
Henry H. Carrey

My sister Shirley was Shajne or Shaine in Yiddish.        #names
Avigdor Ben-Dov

I think this conversation is backwards - the original name was Yiddish and/or Hebrew. The question should be what English name was chosen based on the original and not the other way around. I know several Sheindls who were Shirley in English  and Yaffa in Hebrew. The fact that Shirley Temple was a very popular child actress at the time these women were either born or immigrated may have had something (a lot?) to do with the choice of name.

Billie Stein

For Shirley one of my family had Tzirle as well, any Libby was Leba

Robyn Camm
Ontario Canada

SZEER (Romania), SCHLEIFER (Russia, Romania)