Sherrill
A feminine name of English origin meaning "bright meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 4,969 living Americans carry the first name Sherrill. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Sherrill today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherrill births was 1947 (334 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherrill. 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 Sherrill is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sherrills were born before 1966.
People living today
5.0K
~ 1 in 68,979 Americans
Peak year
1947
334 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
1991 SSA rank
#9,417
Tracked since 1912
Census
Sherrill in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,315 people with the first name Sherrill, which placed it at #3,361 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
#3,361
National first-name rank
People counted
6.3K
6,315 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherrill
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherrill is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.0%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Sherrill 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 Sherrill at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.9% · 5,422
- Black or African American10.0% · 629
- Two or more races2.0% · 125
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 46
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Sherrill
Sherrill is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 8,847 total registrations, 1,915 (21.6%) were male and 6,932 (78.4%) were female.
Sherrill as a male name
- Ranked #9,417 in 1991
- 5 male births in 1991
- Peak: 1936 (74 births)
Sherrill as a female name
- Ranked #10,678 in 1997
- 8 female births in 1997
- Peak: 1947 (284 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherrill leans strongly female. 5,440 people counted with this name were female (86.2%), compared with 871 male bearers (13.8%).
Popularity
Sherrill: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherrill from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,845 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
Sherrill 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 Sherrill during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sherrills live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. California, North Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Sherrill, while Utah, Rhode Island, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sherrill
The given name Sherrill has its origins in the Old English language, with roots dating back to the 5th century CE. It is derived from the Old English words "scir," meaning "bright" or "shining," and "hild," which translates to "battle" or "combat." Thus, the name Sherrill can be interpreted as "bright battle" or "shining warrior."
During the Anglo-Saxon period, the name Sherrill was likely used as a descriptive term for brave and valiant warriors who fought with distinction on the battlefield. While there are no definitive records of the name's usage in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is believed to have been a common name among the Anglo-Saxon nobility and military ranks.
The earliest recorded examples of the name Sherrill can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086 CE. Several individuals with variations of the name, such as Scirild and Scirhild, are listed as landowners or tenants in various counties.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Sherrill. One of the earliest recorded was Sherrill de Grentemesnil (c. 1060-1123), a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. He was later granted lands in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire for his military service.
Another prominent individual was Sherrill Babington (c. 1615-1670), an English cavalier and landowner who supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. He was captured and imprisoned by Parliamentary forces but later pardoned.
In the United States, Sherrill Milburn (1847-1923) was a prominent businessman and philanthropist from New York. He made his fortune in the banking and railroad industries and later donated generously to educational institutions and cultural organizations.
Sherrill Whiton (1886-1965) was an American painter and illustrator known for her depictions of rural life and landscapes. She studied at the Art Students League in New York and had her works exhibited in numerous galleries across the country.
Lastly, Sherrill Milnes (born 1935) is an American opera singer and baritone who has performed on prestigious stages worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. He is particularly acclaimed for his portrayal of Verdi's Rigoletto and has received multiple honors, including the prestigious Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France.
People
Sherrill + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherrill 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
Sherrill: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherrill?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,969 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherrill 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 68,979 US residents.
Is Sherrill a common name?
We classify Sherrill as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,847 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherrill most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherrill was 1947, when 334 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherrill is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherrill in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,315 people with the name Sherrill, or 2.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,361 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 Sherrill 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 Sherrill?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherrill leans strongly female. 5,440 people counted with this name were female (86.2%), compared with 871 male bearers (13.8%). 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 Sherrill?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherrill is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.0%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Sherrill most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sherrill in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.9% (5,422 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 Sherrill in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherrill a female name?
Yes, 78.4% of people registered as Sherrill 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 Sherrill still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherrill 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 Sherrill 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 common is the name Sherrill?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Sherrill, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.