Humanverse

Shealyn vs Sheryl

American parents have registered 79,026 Sheryls since 1880, against 1,283 Shealyns. Sheryl is still ahead, with 13 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Shealyn against Sheryl, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Shealyn Sheryl

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 104 years in which either name was published, Sheryl for 92 years and Shealyn for 12 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Shealyn Sheryl
Total US births 1,28379,026
Most in one year 654,144
Babies in 2025 513
Estimated living today 1,30065,000
Median age today 2365
Peak year 20001957
Best rank 2,374th girls112th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd7,885th
First recorded 19751921
Girls / boys 1,283 / 078,826 / 200

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sheryls alive today are over 65; half the Shealyns are over 23. That is 42 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Shealyn and Sheryl.