Cashmere
Feminine · “from Kashmir”
Cashmere is given to both — 697 girls and 657 boys since 1880. See Cashmere as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Cashmere is how English used to spell Kashmir. The wool came from goats kept high in the Himalayas, the shawls made from it were a European luxury by the eighteenth century, and the region's name traveled with the cloth in whatever spelling the traders were using. The place is now spelled one way and the fabric another, and this name takes the fabric.
How old is the name Cashmere?
Cashmere first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Cashmere alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 700 people named Cashmere are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cashmere most popular?
Cashmere peaked in 1995, reaching #3220 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 11,722 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Where it comes from
From Kashmir to Cashmere
The story of Cashmere
Kashmiri shawls reached Europe through the East India trade and became an object of enormous fashion in the early nineteenth century; Napoleon gave them as gifts, and European mills spent decades trying to imitate the cloth. The word settled into English as the name of the fiber, and the region kept its own spelling. American naming has a long habit of taking luxury words — Cashmere, Diamond, Chanel, Armani — and giving them to children. This one appears in the record from 1920 and is rising now, given to sons and daughters alike.
Meaning
from Kashmir
From the region of Kashmir, whose own name has been explained several ways and settled none of them — a Sanskrit derivation involving a sage called Kashyapa is the traditional one. The English word cashmere is simply an older spelling of the place, attached to the wool of the goats raised there.
How the name formed
- Kashmir
- cashmere
- Cashmere
Related forms: Kashir · Cachemire
Pronouncing Cashmere
KASH-meer
Two syllables, stress on the first, said exactly as the fabric is said. The region is usually said with the weight at the back in English — kash-MEER — which is a real difference between the place and the cloth.
Nicknames for Cashmere
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 199535 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3220reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- −58.3%5 in 2025, from 12
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cashmere in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kashir in Kashmiri — related form
- Cachemire in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan.
Cashmeres among us
people named Cashmere are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Cashmere
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cashmere
- #14942
- Cashmere on the 2025 chart
- #937
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cashmere went to 5 girls in 2025, but Kashmere is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 23, which makes it the 937th most-given girls’ name of the year — 14,005 places above the chart.
- Kashmere18
- Cashmere5
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Cashmere itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Glendine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cashmere's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Glendine climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Glendine's path sketches the road Cashmere is walking now.
Cashmere sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cashmere beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cashmere in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cash is available as a short form and is currently a well-used name in its own right.
- Everyone can say it and spell it, since the word is on clothing labels everywhere.
- It names a real place with a documented trade history behind it.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- It is a luxury fabric, and the name carries that association first and permanently.
- It is also a contested region with a long and painful political history, which anyone who reads the news will know.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy, though nothing in the word settles it.
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What they receive
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Cashmere
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cashmeres are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Cashmere are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cashmere?
- Cashmere is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kashmere is the more common one — 18 births in 2025 against 5 for Cashmere.
- How popular is the name Cashmere in 2025?
- Cashmere ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cashmere?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Cashmere — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cashmere with classmates?
- Cashmere will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cashmere
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Makyah#14942 · Sophya#14942 · Lyllian#14942 · Sarrah#14942 · Mellanie#14942 · Kally#14942 · Dyanna#14942 · Morgann#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cashmere? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cashmere and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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