Sharyn
A feminine name deriving from the Hebrew name "Sharon", meaning "a fertile plain".
Name Census estimates that about 4,560 living Americans carry the first name Sharyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sharyn today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sharyn births was 1947 (919 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sharyn. 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 Sharyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Sharyn is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sharyns were born before 1968.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 75,165 Americans
Peak year
1947
919 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2014 SSA rank
#12,901
Tracked since 1932
Census
Sharyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,339 people with the first name Sharyn, which placed it at #3,347 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
#3,347
National first-name rank
People counted
6.3K
6,339 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sharyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharyn is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Sharyn 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 Sharyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.2% · 5,530
- Black or African American5.9% · 376
- Two or more races2.4% · 154
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 150
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 104
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 25
Popularity
Sharyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sharyn from the 1930s through to the 2010s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 3,899 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sharyn 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 Sharyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sharyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Sharyn, while Montana, Mississippi, Utah recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 125 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sharyn
The name Sharyn is a modern variation of the Hebrew name Sharon, which means "plain" or "level ground." It is derived from the Hebrew word "shârown," which refers to the fertile coastal region of ancient Israel known as the Sharon Plain.
The name Sharon has its roots in ancient Canaan and the Middle East, where it was used as a place name long before becoming a personal name. The earliest known reference to the Sharon Plain can be found in the Bible, where it is mentioned in several books, including the Song of Songs and Isaiah.
One of the earliest recorded instances of Sharon as a personal name dates back to the 12th century BCE. In the Book of Samuel, there is a mention of a man named Sharon who was a servant of King David. However, it is unclear whether this was a given name or a reference to his place of origin.
In the New Testament, there is a reference to a woman named Sharon who was a follower of Jesus Christ. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of the name being used as a feminine given name.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Sharyn or variations of it. One of the earliest was Sharyn Hubbard Azor (c. 1460-1538), an English noblewoman and courtier during the reign of Henry VIII.
Another prominent figure was Sharyn Fry (1807-1878), an American abolitionist and women's rights activist who played a significant role in the anti-slavery movement and the early women's suffrage movement in the United States.
In the realm of literature, Sharyn Eliot Bronte (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet, best known for her novel "Wuthering Heights," which is considered a classic of English literature.
Sharyn Curie (1867-1934), a Polish-born physicist and chemist, was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice. She is renowned for her pioneering work on radioactivity and the discovery of the elements polonium and radium.
Finally, Sharyn Hepburn (1907-2003) was a renowned American actress who is widely regarded as one of the greatest film stars of the 20th century. She won four Academy Awards for Best Actress, a record that remains unbroken.
People
Sharyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sharyn 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
Sharyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sharyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,560 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sharyn 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 75,165 US residents.
Is Sharyn a common name?
We classify Sharyn as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,239 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sharyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Sharyn was 1947, when 919 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sharyn is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sharyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,339 people with the name Sharyn, or 2.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,347 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 Sharyn 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 Sharyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sharyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,342 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Sharyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sharyn is White at 87.2%. The next largest groups are Black (5.9%) and Two or More Races (2.4%). 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 Sharyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sharyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.2% (5,530 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 Sharyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sharyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sharyn 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 Sharyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sharyn 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 Sharyn 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 Sharyn?
See how many Americans are named Sharyn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.