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Sherlin vs Sherry

American parents have registered 230,913 Sherrys since 1880, against 774 Sherlins. Sherry is still ahead, with 23 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sherlin against Sherry, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sherlin Sherry

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 114 years in which either name was published, Sherry for 112 years and Sherlin for 2 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Sherlin Sherry
Total US births 774230,913
Most in one year 1219,261
Babies in 2025 523
Estimated living today 770190,000
Median age today 1863
Peak year 20061962
Best rank 1,722nd girls48th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd5,410th
First recorded 19511909
Girls / boys 774 / 0229,937 / 976

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 Sherrys alive today are over 63; half the Sherlins are over 18. That is 45 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: Sherlin and Sherry.