Sherra
A feminine name of Egyptian origin meaning "ornament" or "beautiful flower".
Name Census estimates that about 702 living Americans carry the first name Sherra. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sherra today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherra births was 1970 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherra. 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.
People living today
702
~ 1 in 488,254 Americans
Peak year
1970
28 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1998 SSA rank
#16,228
Tracked since 1937
Census
Sherra in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 802 people with the first name Sherra, which placed it at #14,631 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
#14,631
National first-name rank
People counted
802
802 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherra
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherra is White at 66.2%. The next largest groups are Black (24.7%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Sherra 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 Sherra at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.2% · 531
- Black or African American24.7% · 198
- Two or more races3.7% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 6
Popularity
Sherra: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherra from the 1930s through to the 1990s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 202 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sherra 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 Sherra during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sherras live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sherra
The name Sherra is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language. It is thought to be a feminine variation of the name Sher, which means "lion" in Arabic. The name likely dates back to the early days of Islam, around the 7th century AD, when Arabic names began to spread across the Middle East and North Africa.
Sherra may also have connections to the Persian language, where the word "sher" also means "lion." This could suggest that the name has roots in the Persian culture as well, which has had a significant influence on the Arabic world throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sherra is found in a historical text from the 10th century, which mentions a woman named Sherra who was a renowned poet and scholar in the city of Baghdad, which was a center of learning and culture during the Islamic Golden Age.
In the 12th century, there was a famous Sufi mystic named Sherra al-Qadiri, who was known for her spiritual teachings and writings. She was a influential figure in the Qadiri Sufi order, which has its origins in Baghdad.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over much of the Middle East and North Africa from the 14th to the early 20th century, the name Sherra was popular among the ruling classes and nobility. One notable figure was Sherra Khanum, who was a princess and the wife of Sultan Mehmed IV in the 17th century.
In more recent history, there was a Moroccan writer and activist named Sherra al-Maghribi, who lived in the early 20th century and was known for her work promoting women's rights and education in her country.
Another notable figure was Sherra Bey, an Egyptian actress and singer who was popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and is considered a pioneer of Egyptian cinema and music.
While the name Sherra is not as common today as it once was in the Arabic-speaking world, it still has a rich cultural and historical significance, reflecting the region's diverse linguistic and cultural heritage.
People
Sherra + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherra 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
Sherra: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherra?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 702 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherra 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 488,254 US residents.
Is Sherra a common name?
We classify Sherra as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 897 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherra most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherra was 1970, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherra is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherra in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 802 people with the name Sherra, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,631 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 Sherra 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 Sherra?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherra appears almost entirely female. Of the 799 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Sherra?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherra is White at 66.2%. The next largest groups are Black (24.7%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Sherra most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sherra in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.2% (531 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 Sherra in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherra a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sherra 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 Sherra still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherra 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 Sherra 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 are called Sherra?
You can see how many people share the name Sherra on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.