Sherlyn
A feminine name of English origin, possibly meaning "bright meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 8,386 living Americans carry the first name Sherlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sherlyn today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherlyn births was 2006 (895 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherlyn. 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 Sherlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.4K
~ 1 in 40,872 Americans
Peak year
2006
895 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2006 SSA rank
#1,990
Tracked since 1936
Census
Sherlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,911 people with the first name Sherlyn, which placed it at #3,504 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
#3,504
National first-name rank
People counted
5.9K
5,911 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
71.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherlyn is Hispanic at 71.7%. The next largest groups are White (16.8%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino71.7% · 4,236
- White16.8% · 996
- Black or African American6.5% · 382
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 233
- Two or more races0.7% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Sherlyn
Out of the 8,888 babies given the name Sherlyn since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Sherlyn as a male name
- Ranked #9,435 in 2006
- 8 male births in 2006
- Peak: 2006 (8 births)
Sherlyn as a female name
- Ranked #1,990 in 2024
- 99 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (887 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,919 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sherlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherlyn from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,678 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sherlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Sherlyn, while New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 180 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sherlyn
The name Sherlyn is a modern English variant of the French name Cherlyne, which itself is derived from the Old French name Charleine. This name traces its roots back to the Germanic name Karlina, which was a feminine form of the male name Karl, meaning "free man" or "peasant farmer."
The earliest recorded use of the name Sherlyn can be found in England during the late 19th century, where it was likely influenced by the popularity of other names with similar sounds, such as Shirley and Arlene. It gained some traction in the early 20th century, particularly in the United States, where it was seen as a fashionable and modern alternative to more traditional names.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Sherlyn was Sherlyn Crisler, an American actress born in 1908 who appeared in several films during the 1930s and 1940s. Another notable early bearer of the name was Sherlyn Oppenheim, an American historian and academic who lived from 1920 to 2008.
In the mid-20th century, the name Sherlyn gained further recognition when it was given to the character Sherlyn Fenn on the popular television series Twin Peaks, which aired from 1990 to 1991. The actress who portrayed her, Sherlyn Fenn, was born in 1965 and helped popularize the name during this period.
Another famous Sherlyn was Sherlyn Chopra, an Indian actress and model born in 1984, who gained notoriety for being one of the first Indian actresses to appear in a Playboy magazine pictorial. She has appeared in numerous Bollywood films and television shows throughout her career.
While the name Sherlyn has never been among the most popular names in English-speaking countries, it has maintained a steady presence over the past century, appreciated for its unique sound and modern flair.
People
Sherlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherlyn 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
Sherlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,386 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherlyn 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 40,872 US residents.
Is Sherlyn a common name?
We classify Sherlyn as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,888 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherlyn was 2006, when 895 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherlyn is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,911 people with the name Sherlyn, or 1.96 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,504 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 Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,919 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Sherlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherlyn is Hispanic at 71.7%. The next largest groups are White (16.8%) and Black (6.5%). 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 Sherlyn most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Sherlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.7% (4,236 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 Sherlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherlyn a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn 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 Sherlyn?
See how many people share the name Sherlyn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.