Chere
Feminine
Chere ends in a letter that does different work in the two languages it could belong to. A final e in French is grammar: it marks a word as feminine and is not pronounced. A final e in English is phonetics: it lengthens the vowel in front of it and is not pronounced either. Same letter, same silence, two entirely different jobs.
How old is the name Chere?
Chere first appears in US birth records in 1927 — 98 years ago. The typical Chere alive today was born around 1968, making them about 57 years old. About 1,200 people named Chere are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chere most popular?
Chere peaked in 1954, reaching #1436 nationally. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A French adjective meaning dear to Chere
Our story of Chere
The two uses of the silent e explain a great deal of the trouble English speakers have with French spelling and the reverse. An English reader sees a final e and hears the vowel in front of it change: hat and hate, rid and ride, not and note. A French reader sees a final e and knows the word is feminine, or that a consonant before it is pronounced that would otherwise be silent. Neither system is more logical; both are the residue of sound changes that stopped centuries ago and left the letters standing. What is unusual is that the same mute letter should have been repurposed twice, in two neighboring languages, to do two jobs that have nothing to do with each other.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The spelling sits between two possible sources and cannot be assigned to either. It may be a French word borrowed as a name, in which case it is an adjective and not a name at all in French; or it may belong to a large family of American women's names beginning with the same syllable, none of which has a settled origin. Nothing distinguishes them.
How the name formed
- A French adjective meaning dear
- A large American family of names on the same syllable
- The two arriving at one spelling
- Chere in the registers from the nineteen twenties
Pronouncing Chere
SHAIR
One syllable. The ch writes an sh, which English does only in borrowings from French, and the final e is silent in both languages for entirely different reasons.
Nicknames for Chere
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
- 1927
- Most girls named
- 195449 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1436reached in 1954
- Change vs 1998
- +60.0%8 in 2000, from 5
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.
Cheres among us
people named Chere 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
Chere 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
- It is short, soft and easy to say once the ch is explained.
- The spelling is compact and unmistakable on paper.
- It is genuinely uncommon while sounding familiar to any American ear.
- The ch will be given its English sound by readers who have not met the name.
- No source can be given, because two of them are equally likely.
- Sherry, Cheri and Cherie are all close enough to be written for it.
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Chere
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cheres are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Chere are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chere in 2025?
- Chere is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Chere with classmates?
- Chere 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 Chere? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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