Cher
Feminine · “dear”
Cher is given to both — 1,721 girls and 110 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
In France this is not a name and it is not feminine. Cher is an ordinary adjective meaning dear, and it is the masculine form — the feminine takes an extra e — so a French reader meeting these three letters would take them as a man's word before taking them as anybody's name.
How old is the name Cher?
Cher first appears in US birth records in 1948 — 77 years ago. The typical Cher alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 1,600 people named Cher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cher most popular?
Cher peaked in 1972, reaching #651 nationally. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cher to Cher
The story of Cher
The record holds it almost entirely for girls, although in French grammar cher is the masculine form and a woman is chère. American parents were not consulting a French dictionary: English takes a foreign word, hears no gender in it, and distributes it according to its own instincts, and here the instinct went the opposite way from the grammar. That is the sort of thing that happens when a word is borrowed without the grammar attached.
Meaning
dear
The French adjective, masculine singular. It is used as a term of address and as an ordinary word about price, and it is not a personal name in the language it comes from.
How the name formed
- cher
- Cher
Pronouncing Cher
SHAIR
One syllable. The ch is the French sh, which the spelling does not signal to an English reader.
Nicknames for Cher
Limited
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
- 1948
- Most girls named
- 1972235 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #651reached in 1972
- Change vs 2020
- −25.0%6 in 2024, from 8
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.
Chers among us
people named Cher are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Cher sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- One syllable, three letters, and instantly remembered.
- The meaning is warm and immediately understood by any French speaker.
- It works across the sexes without straining for it.
- It is overwhelmingly associated with one performer.
- The opening consonant is read as an English ch by people meeting it cold.
- The spelling is recorded for a few boys, but nearly every child with it is a girl.
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What they receive
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Cher
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Chers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Cher are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cher in 2025?
- Cher is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cher with classmates?
- Cher will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cher? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cher and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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