Sharryl
A modern feminine diminutive form of Sharon, meaning "plain" or "field of roses".
Name Census estimates that about 34 living Americans carry the first name Sharryl. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sharryl today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sharryl births was 1942 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sharryl. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Sharryl is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sharryls were born before 1967.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sharryl. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
34
~ 1 in 10,081,010 Americans
Peak year
1942
7 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1965 SSA rank
#6,399
Tracked since 1942
Census
Sharryl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 100 people with the first name Sharryl, which placed it at #53,336 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
#53,336
National first-name rank
People counted
100
100 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sharryl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharryl is White at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (25.0%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Sharryl 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 Sharryl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.0% · 68
- Black or African American25.0% · 25
- Two or more races7.0% · 7
Popularity
Sharryl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sharryl from the 1940s through to the 1960s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 30 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sharryl 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 Sharryl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sharryl
The name Sharryl is a relatively modern variant of the more common name Sharon. Its origins can be traced back to the Hebrew language and culture, where the name originally appeared as Sharon, meaning "plain" or "level ground." This refers to the fertile coastal plain region in ancient Israel known as the Sharon Plain.
In the Bible, the Sharon Plain is mentioned multiple times, notably in the Song of Songs and the Book of Isaiah. However, the name itself does not appear as a personal name in any ancient Hebrew texts or scriptures. The earliest recorded use of Sharon as a given name dates back to the Middle Ages, likely influenced by the biblical references to the Sharon Plain.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Sharon was Sharon of Navarre, a Spanish noblewoman who lived in the 12th century. She was the daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre and played an important role in the political affairs of the Kingdom of Navarre during her lifetime.
In the 16th century, Sharon was used as a given name for both men and women, although it was more commonly given to women. One notable bearer of the name from this period was Sharon Turner, an English historian and writer who lived from 1768 to 1847 and is best known for his work "The History of the Anglo-Saxons."
The spelling variant Sharryl emerged in the 20th century, likely as a way to make the name more unique or to distinguish it from the more common Sharon. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sharryl was Sharryl Howes, an American actress and model who was born in 1945 and appeared in several television shows and movies in the 1960s and 1970s.
Another notable bearer of the name Sharryl was Sharryl Attkisson, an American journalist and author who was born in 1961. She worked as a correspondent for CBS News for over two decades and is known for her investigations into various government scandals and controversies.
Other individuals named Sharryl who have made significant contributions in their respective fields include Sharryl Buchanan, an American tennis player who was born in 1953 and won several Grand Slam doubles titles in the 1970s and 1980s, and Sharryl Pennicke, a Canadian figure skater who was born in 1969 and represented Canada at the 1992 Winter Olympics.
People
Sharryl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sharryl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sharryl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sharryl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sharryl 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 10,081,010 US residents.
Is Sharryl a common name?
We classify Sharryl as "Very Rare". It ranks above 48.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 52 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sharryl most popular?
The single biggest year for Sharryl was 1942, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sharryl is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sharryl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 100 people with the name Sharryl, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #53,336 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 Sharryl 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 Sharryl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sharryl appears almost entirely female. Of the 103 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Sharryl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharryl is White at 68.0%. The next largest groups are Black (25.0%) and Two or More Races (7.0%). 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 Sharryl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sharryl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.0% (68 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 Sharryl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sharryl a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sharryl 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 Sharryl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sharryl 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 Sharryl 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 people have the name Sharryl?
See how many Americans are named Sharryl on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.