Cherry
A feminine name derived from the French word for a sweet red fruit.
Name Census estimates that about 7,382 living Americans carry the first name Cherry. It is a predominantly female name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Cherry today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cherry births was 1947 (359 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cherry. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cherry with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cherry is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 136 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
7.4K
~ 1 in 46,431 Americans
Peak year
1947
359 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
1981 SSA rank
#4,672
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cherry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,638 people with the first name Cherry, which placed it at #2,362 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#2,362
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,638 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cherry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cherry is White at 45.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (22.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cherry described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cherry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.2% · 4,809
- Black or African American23.7% · 2,517
- Asian and Pacific Islander22.5% · 2,394
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 485
- Two or more races3.2% · 337
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 96
Gender
Gender distribution for Cherry
Cherry leans heavily female at 98.8% of total registrations, but 136 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cherry as a male name
- Ranked #6,439 in 1981
- 5 male births in 1981
- Peak: 1948 (10 births)
Cherry as a female name
- Ranked #4,672 in 2024
- 29 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (354 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cherry leans strongly female. 10,465 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 176 male bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Cherry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cherry from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 2,658 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cherry by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cherry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cherrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Cherry, while Wisconsin, Hawaii, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 226 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cherry
The name Cherry originated as an English nickname derived from the word for the sweet red fruit that grows on trees. The Old English word for cherry was "cirse" which evolved into the Middle English "cherise" before taking its modern spelling. It first emerged as a given name in the 16th century, perhaps as a descriptive nickname for someone with rosy red cheeks or lips.
The earliest recorded use of Cherry as a first name dates back to 1594 in parish records from Suffolk, England. One of the earliest bearers was Cherry Brandon, born in 1623 in Nayland, Suffolk. She married John Deane and their descendants emigrated to America in the late 1600s, helping to introduce the name to the New World.
A famous early bearer was Cherry Ripe, a nickname used by the 17th century English poet Robert Herrick for an idealized country maiden in his 1648 poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time". The line "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying" made Cherry Ripe a romantic symbol of youthful beauty.
Other early examples include Cherry Kearton (1871-1940), an English pioneer of nature photography and co-founder of the first wildlife documentary film company. American Cherry Jones (born 1956) is a celebrated stage and screen actress who won a Tony Award for The Heiress in 1995 and Emmy Awards for her roles in 24 and The Handmaid's Tale.
Cherry Wilder (1944-2002) from New Zealand was known internationally as the author of acclaimed memoirs and novels reflecting on her Maori and European heritage. British dancer Cherry Khouri (1942-1989) found fame in the 1960s in the vanguard of contemporary styles like jazz ballet. Historical figures with the name also include Cherry Marshall (1703-1751), an English soprano of the Baroque era who premièred works by Handel.
People
Cherry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cherry as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cherry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cherry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cherry going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 46,431 US residents.
Is Cherry a common name?
We classify Cherry as "Rare". It ranks above 97.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,674 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cherry most popular?
The single biggest year for Cherry was 1947, when 359 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cherry is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cherry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,638 people with the name Cherry, or 3.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,362 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cherry in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cherry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cherry leans strongly female. 10,465 people counted with this name were female (98.3%), compared with 176 male bearers (1.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cherry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cherry is White at 45.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (22.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cherry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cherry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.2% (4,809 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cherry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cherry a female name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Cherry in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cherry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cherry in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cherry can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Cherry?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Cherry at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.