Sherry
Masculine
Sherry is given to girls far more often — 229,937 girls against 976 boys since 1880. See Sherry as a girl name
Sherry is a town in Spain that English mangled and then got the grammar wrong. Jerez became sherris in English mouths; English speakers heard a plural, dropped the s to make a singular, and invented a word that had never existed — which is exactly how a pea was cut out of pease and a cherry out of cerise.
How old is the name Sherry?
Sherry first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Sherry alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 600 people named Sherry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sherry most popular?
Sherry peaked in 1962, reaching #1259 nationally. See the whole 1962 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From the Andalusian town of Jerez and its fortified wine to Sherry
The story of Sherry
The error is called back-formation and English has done it repeatedly. Pease was a singular noun — the pease porridge of the rhyme is one substance — and speakers heard the s as a plural and produced a pea. Cerise was a single cherry in Norman French and gave English a cherry the same way. Sherris became sherry in exactly that fashion, and Shakespeare's characters are still drinking sherris-sack a generation after the mistake began. The words are now unremovable and every one of them is a grammatical accident.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a name it may be the wine, may be Cherie or Cheryl cut short, and may be an independent coinage. All three were live in the 1950s and the record cannot distinguish them. The wine's own name is a place: the fortified wine of Jerez de la Frontera, which English has been drinking and mispronouncing since the sixteenth century.
How the name formed
- the Andalusian town of Jerez and its fortified wine
- English hears the name as sherris
- the final s is mistaken for a plural and dropped
- sherry becomes an English word and then a name
- an American peak at the start of the sixties
Related forms: Jerez · Sherri · Cherie
Pronouncing Sherry
SHERR-ee
Two syllables, stress at the front. Identical to the wine in every mouth, which is the source of most of the jokes.
Nicknames for Sherry
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 196238 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1259reached in 1962
- Change vs 1989
- 0.0%5 in 1991, 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.
Sherry in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jerez in Spanish — related form
- Sherri in English — spelling variant
- Cherie in English — related form
Sherrys among us
people named Sherry 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
Sherry 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 warm, short and read correctly by everybody at sight.
- It works for a child of either sex, and the record carries it on both sides.
- Sher is available and has its own currency.
- It is the name of a drink, and that will be the first association for most adults.
- Sherri, Sherrie and Cheri are all in the record and will be substituted.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the last century.
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Sherry
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Sherrys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Sherry are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sherry in 2025?
- Sherry is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Sherry with classmates?
- Sherry will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sherry? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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