Cherry
Feminine · “the cherry”
Cherry is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 11,580 girls against 136 boys since 1880.
Cherry is the English fruit, and the word arrived by a mistake: English heard the French cherise as a plural and made a singular out of it that never existed in French.
How old is the name Cherry?
Cherry was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cherry alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 8,400 people named Cherry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cherry most popular?
Cherry peaked in 1948, reaching #429 nationally. Today it ranks #3577, 3,148 places below that high. See the whole 1948 chart.
Where it comes from
From cerasum to Cherry
The story of Cherry
The back-formation is a genuine and well-documented accident of English: cherise looked plural, so a singular was invented, and the French word had no such form. As a given name Cherry appears in English records from the seventeenth century as a short form of Charity and in America from the nineteenth as a fruit name, alongside Olive, Plum and Peach. It was widely used in mid-century America.
Meaning
the cherry
From Old North French cherise, itself from Latin cerasum; English speakers took the final s for a plural and back-formed cherry. The same error gave English pea from pease. The name is also used as a short form of Charity.
How the name formed
- cerasum
- cherise
- cherry
Related forms: Cerise · Cereza · Charity
Pronouncing Cherry
CHEH-ree
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Cherry
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 1946317 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #429reached in 1948
- Change vs 2022
- +75.0%42 in 2025, from 24
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.
Cherry in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cerise in French — related form
- Cereza in Spanish — related form
- Charity in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Cherrys among us
people named Cherry are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 38,268 born in 2025 was named Cherry
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cherry
- #3577
- Cherry on the 2025 chart
- #912
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cherry went to 42 girls in 2025, but Cheri is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 48, which makes it the 912th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,665 places above the chart.
- Cherry42
- Cheri6
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 38,268 for Cherry 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 Magdalene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cherry's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Magdalene climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Magdalene's path sketches the road Cherry is walking now.
Cherry 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
Where Cherry is headed
Cherry should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cherry beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cherry in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An ordinary English word, so nobody has to be taught to say or spell it.
- The back-formation history is genuinely interesting and easy to tell.
- Charity stands behind it as a fuller formal option.
- The word carries several slang senses in English that a grown woman will meet.
- It is strongly associated with one mid-century American generation.
- A fruit name invites remarks that a person cannot control.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cherry to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cherry
Feminine · #3577 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cherrys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,400 people named Cherry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cherry?
- Cherry is the most-used spelling in US records — 42 of the 48 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Cheri.
- How popular is the name Cherry in 2025?
- Cherry ranks #3577 among US girl names in 2025, with 42 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cherry?
- About 1 in every 38,268 US girls born in 2025 was named Cherry — 42 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cherry with classmates?
- Cherry will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cherry
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Evelyne#3577 · Ellanor#3577 · Gwenevere#3577 · Lian#3577 · Katya#3577 · Kolby#3577 · Kolbi#3577 · Delphine#3577
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cherry? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cherry and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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