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Shermane vs Sheryl

American parents have registered 79,026 Sheryls since 1880, against 32 Shermanes. Sheryl is still ahead, with 13 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Shermane 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

Sheryl has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1921 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1975, when Shermane had 6 and Sheryl had 575.

Side by side

  Shermane Sheryl
Total US births 3279,026
Most in one year 104,144
Babies in 2025 under 513
Estimated living today 3065,000
Median age today 7065
Peak year 19531957
Best rank 3,687th girls112th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked7,885th
First recorded 19531921
Girls / boys 32 / 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 Shermanes alive today are over 70; half the Sheryls are over 65. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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