How popular is the baby name Cheryl in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Cheryl.

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Popularity of the baby name Cheryl


Posts that mention the name Cheryl

Mystery baby name: Chyleen

Graph of the usage of the baby name Chyleen in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Chyleen

Today’s mystery name is Chyleen, a uniquely spelled one-hit wonder from 1945:

  • 1947: unlisted
  • 1946: unlisted
  • 1945: 9 baby girls named Chyleen [debut]
  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: unlisted

The names Charlene and Cheryl were on the rise in the ’40s, so the look/sound of Chyleen certainly fits with the trends of the time. But I can’t figure out what put the specific spelling “Chyleen” on the map.

Looking through records, I found a couple of people with other spellings, but “Chyleen” was the dominant favorite. This makes me think the influence was something written (e.g., news story, movie credits, book).

Any ideas about what influenced Chyleen?

P.S. The Chyleen-like name Chyla saw a spike in usage in 1983, with a third of that usage coming from in Illinois. The influence was likely Chicago Bears quarterback Vince Evans, who married a woman named Chyla Dibble in mid-1982. (The couple was featured in the July 19, 1982, issue of Jet magazine.)

What gave the baby name Cherrelle a boost?

Cherrelle's debut album "Fragile" (1984)
Cherrelle album

The baby name Cherrelle became trendy in the ’80s thanks to R&B vocalist Cherrelle, born Cheryl Anne Norton.

She had a string of successful songs during the mid-to-late ’80s following the release of her debut album in 1984. This explains why the name re-appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1984 (after popping up once in ’70s) and usage spiked in 1986 and 1989:

  • 1990: 70 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1989: 138 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1988: 91 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1987: 81 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1986: 188 baby girls named Cherrelle [peak]
  • 1985: 45 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1984: 37 baby girls named Cherrelle
  • 1983: unlisted

The only year it reached the top 1,000 was 1986, when it ranked 879th.

Sources: Cherrelle – Wikipedia, SSA

What gave the baby name Charmaine a boost (twice)?

The character Charmaine from the silent film "What Price Glory?" (1926)
Charmaine from “What Price Glory?“

The name Charmaine reminds me of the name Cheryl — both are relatively recent inventions with hazy origins, both saw increased usage thanks to popular culture, and both sound a bit dated these days.

Charmaine never became as popular as Cheryl did, but, interestingly, the two main pop culture boosts that it got — in 1928 and in 1952 — were caused by the very same thing.

The silent film What Price Glory? (1926) was a comedy/drama set in France during World War I. The film followed two U.S. Marines, Capt. Flagg and Sgt. Quirt, as they fought for the affections of Charmaine (played by Dolores del Rio), the local innkeeper’s daughter.

The movie’s theme song, “Charmaine,” was used as a leitmotif throughout the film. It went on to become a huge hit in the late 1920s. The best-selling recording, by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, spent seven weeks at #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1927.

In response to the popular song, hundreds of American baby girls were named Charmaine:

  • 1929: 113 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 655th)
  • 1928: 265 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 419th)
  • 1927: 74 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 856th)
  • 1926: 8 baby girls named Charmaine
  • 1925: 10 baby girls named Charmaine

A generation later, in 1952, the film was remade — this time with sound and color. (In this version, Charmaine was played by Corinne Calvet.)

The song “Charmaine” again became a hit. Multiple versions landed on the U.S. Billboard charts, including an instrumental version by the Mantovani Orchestra that peaked at #10 in 1951 and a version by the Billy May Orchestra that reached #17 in 1952.

This time around, usage of the baby name Charmaine more than tripled:

  • 1954: 351 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 475th)
  • 1953: 430 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 416th)
  • 1952: 619 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 331st) [peak usage]
  • 1951: 192 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 623rd)
  • 1950: 152 baby girls named Charmaine (rank: 698th)

Usage has been decreasing ever since, though. In 2014, just 18 baby girls were named Charmaine.

So where does the name Charmaine come from?

Sources suggest that it’s based on either the English word “charm” or the name Charmian. Charmian is a variant of Charmion, based on the ancient Greek word kharma, meaning “delight.” (One of Cleopatra’s servants was named Charmion.) The second syllable may have been influenced by the name Lorraine, which was fashionable in the early 1900s.

Which name do you like more, Charmaine or Cheryl?

Sources:

  • Charmaine (song) – Wikipedia
  • Melnick, Ross. American Showman: Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
  • SSA

Image: Screenshot of What Price Glory?

What popularized the baby name Cheryl in the 1940s?

Actress Cheryl Walker in the movie "Stage Door Canteen" (1943)
Cheryl Walker in “Stage Door Canteen“

We may not know the exact origin of the name Cheryl (is it Cherie + Beryl…?), but we do know that the name saw a drastic rise in popularity during the first half of 20th century. Cheryl went from a rarity in the early 1900s to one of the most popular girl names in the U.S. by the mid-1950s.

How did it manage to do that?

With a little help from pop culture!

The first pop culture boost happened in 1938:

U.S. girls named CherylCalif. girls named Cheryl
1940285 [rank: 408th]42
1939289 [rank: 390th]49
1938397 [rank: 312th]76
1937145 [rank: 563rd]16
193694 [rank: 688th]10

What was drawing attention to the name (particularly in California) around that time?

A 19-year-old from Pasadena named Cheryl Walker. In late 1937, she was selected as the 1938 Queen of the Tournament of Roses. Local newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times) talked about Cheryl quite a bit during the last month of 1937 and the first few months of 1938.

Cheryl Walker went on to work in movies for about a decade. Her biggest picture was the wartime hit Stage Door Canteen, in which she played a canteen hostess (named Eileen) who fell in love with a soldier. Released in mid-1943, Stage Door Canteen became one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

In both 1943 and 1944, the number of babies named Cheryl increased significantly:

  • 1945: 8,150 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 32nd]
  • 1944: 7,970 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 36th]
  • 1943: 2,878 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 102nd]
  • 1942: 590 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 280th]
  • 1941: 439 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 311th]

The name of Cheryl’s character, Eileen, also saw increased usage, as did many variant spellings of Cheryl:

19421943194419451946
Cheryl5902,8787,9708,15011,525
Sheryl3245889491,0551,632
Sherrill202207263206250
Cheryle2780176184238
Sherryl4971104140203
Cheryll11416998120
Sheryle1219263152
Cherryl9195958104
Sharelle–28*10––
Charyl–24*271721
Scheryl–11*1175
Cherril–667–
Sherral–66–8
Sherelle–6*–––
Sheril–51169
Chyrl–5*8710
Cheril––6*7–
Cherl––6*58
Sherryll––565
Cherill––5*––
Cheyrl––5*59
Chyrel–––7*10
Cheryal–––6*5
Cherryle–––5*–
Sherell–––5*–
Sherrille–––5*–
Chryl––––9*
Sherryle––––7*
Cherel––––5*
Cherle––––5*
Cherryll––––5*
Chyral––––5*
Shyrel––––5*
*Debut

But the skyrocketing interest in the name Cheryl was due to more than just a movie.

A few weeks after the film was released, Hollywood star Lana Turner and her husband Stephen Crane welcomed a daughter they decided to call Cheryl Christina Crane. (Lana said the name “Cheryl” came to her in a dream.)

Stephen Crane, Lana Turner, and baby Cheryl Crane (in mid-1943)
Stephen Crane, Lana Turner, and Cheryl

Baby Cheryl was often mentioned in the news — particularly during 1944, when she was at the center of a custody battle that lasted from April until August.

Usage of the name Cheryl plateaued in the late ’40s and early ’50s, then began to rise again in 1954:

  • 1956: 21,280 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 18th]
  • 1955: 19,100 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 19th]
  • 1954: 15,000 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 22nd]
  • 1953: 12,271 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 28th]
  • 1952: 12,197 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 31st]

Why?

Likely because of a short-lived TV show called Waterfront (1954-1956). The central character, John Herrick, was the captain of a San Pedro Harbor tugboat called the “Cheryl Ann.” The show also gave a boost to the compound names Cherylann, Cherylanne and Sherylann specifically.

The rise continued with the help of Mouseketeer Cheryl Holdridge (b. 1944), who was featured on the immensely popular children’s TV series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1956 to 1958.

Graph of the usage of the baby name Cheryl in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Cheryl

The name Cheryl reached peak popularity in 1958 — which just so happens to be the year that Lana Turner’s daughter Cheryl (now age 14) was back in the headlines, this time for killing her mother’s abusive boyfriend (a gangster named Johnny Stompanato).

After that, usage of the name began to decline. Cheryl fell out of the top 20 in 1962, then out of the top 50 in 1972.

It saw a minor resurgence at the end of the 1970s — thanks to actress Cheryl Ladd, singer Cheryl Lynn, and/or model Cheryl Tiegs — but was out of the top 100 by 1980.

  • 1980: 2,609 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 119th]
  • 1979: 3,210 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 94th]
  • 1978: 3,167 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 94th]
  • 1977: 2121 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 134th]

And in 1998, exactly 40 years after nearly reaching the top 10, Cheryl fell out of the top 1,000 entirely.

What are your thoughts on the name Cheryl? (How about the specific spelling Cherrill?)

P.S. Thank you to all the people who’ve left helpful comments below! I’ve finally revised this post to incorporate your ideas/suggestions. :)

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of Stage Door Canteen; Cheryl Crane photo (public domain)

[Latest update: Feb. 2024]