How popular is the baby name Sherry 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 Sherry.

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Popularity of the baby name Sherry


Posts that mention the name Sherry

What gave the baby name Dawn a boost in 1964?

The Four Seasons' album "Dawn (Go Away) and 11 Other Great Songs" (1964)
Four Seasons album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Dawn saw a significant increase in usage in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: 13,602 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 24th]
  • 1965: 13,341 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 26th]
  • 1964: 12,614 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 33rd]
  • 1963: 8,416 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 52nd]
  • 1962: 8,980 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 50th]

Why?

Because of the Four Seasons song “Dawn (Go Away),” in which the narrator speaks to a female named Dawn (who’s as “pretty as a midsummer’s morn”).

Here’s what it sounds like:

The song was released as a single in January of 1964. From late February to early March, for three weeks straight, it ranked #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. (The two songs that prevented it from climbing any higher were both Beatles songs: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Dawn? (Do you like it more or less than Sherry?)

Update, Feb. 2025: Thank you to Randi for mentioning a second possible influence: actress Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on the sitcom Gilligan’s Island, which premiered in September of 1964.

Sources: Dawn (Go Away) – Wikipedia, Billboard Hot 100 for the week of 22 Feb. 1964, Gilligan’s Island – Wikipedia, SSA

What gave the baby name Sherry a boost in 1962?

The Four Seasons album "Sherry & 11 Others" (1962)
Four Seasons album

The baby name Sherry, already popular in the early 1960s, reached peak usage in 1962 specifically:

  • 1964: 8,495 baby girls named Sherry [rank: 50th]
  • 1963: 9,065 baby girls named Sherry [rank: 49th]
  • 1962: 9,226 baby girls named Sherry [rank: 48th]
  • 1961: 8,358 baby girls named Sherry [rank: 53rd]
  • 1960: 8,314 baby girls named Sherry [rank: 54th]

What accounts for that sudden jump into the girls’ top 50?

The song “Sherry” by The Four Seasons, a vocal quartet led by Frankie Valli (and his distinctive falsetto).

“Sherry,” the group’s second single, was released in July of 1962. In mid-September it reached #1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart (dethroning “Sheila” by Tommy Roe). It remained in the top spot for five weeks straight.

Here’s what “Sherry” sounds like:

Originally entitled “Terry,” the song was written (in about fifteen minutes) by Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio. When Bob shared it with the rest of the group, the reaction was mixed: “[S]ome of the guys liked it and some didn’t.”

Unable to come to a consensus, they played it for their producer, Bob Crewe, over the phone. Crewe loved the song, but not the name. He considered replacing it with Jackie (after First Lady Jackie Kennedy) and Peri (the name of one of his record labels) before settling upon Sherry — a respelling of Cheri, the name of the daughter of one of his good friends, New York disc jockey Jack Spector.

What are your thoughts on the name Sherry? (Do you like it more or less than Sheila?)

P.S. The name’s steep rise in 1946 may be largely attributable to the baby boom, but I think a second influence was the 1946 western Abilene Town, which featured a character named Sherry (played by actress Rhonda Fleming).

Sources:

What popularized the baby name Brandy in the early 1970s?

Looking Glass single "Brandy" (1972)
Looking Glass single

The baby name Brandy — which comes from the name of the alcoholic beverage — first appeared in the U.S. data as a girl name during the WWII era.

Over the next few decades, usage of the name slowly increased with some help from pop culture. The films Two of a Kind (1951), Destry (1954), and Hatari! (1962) all featured female characters named Brandy, and several early TV shows (such as The Untouchables, The Defenders, and Tales of Wells Fargo) likewise included minor female characters with the name.

Then, in the early 1970s, the usage of Brandy suddenly tripled:

  • 1974: 3,831 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 80th]
  • 1973: 3,714 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 82nd]
  • 1972: 2,082 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 140th]
  • 1971: 704 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 353rd]
  • 1970: 610 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 385th]

Other spellings (such as Brandi, Brandie, Brandee, Brande, and Brandye) also got a boost.

Why?

Because of the soft-rock song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” [vid] by the New Jersey band Looking Glass.

It was released as a single in May of 1972 and reached the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in late August.

The song was about a female bartender named Brandy who, though she served many of the sailors passing through her harbor town, pined for a particular one (who’d left her to return to the sea).

Band member Elliot Lurie wrote the song. How did he choose Brandy’s name?

The name was derived from a high school girlfriend I had whose name was Randy with an “R.” Usually when I write […] I strum some guitar and kind of sing along with the first things that come to mind. Her name came up. Then I started writing the rest of the song, and it was about a barmaid. I thought Randy was an unusual name for a girl, it could go either way, and (the song was about) a barmaid, so I changed it to Brandy.

Thanks to the song, the name Brandy entered the girls’ top 100 in 1973.

But that’s not the end of the story. Later the same decade, the name got another boost from another song:

  • 1980: 6,410 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 42nd]
  • 1979: 6,775 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 39th]
  • 1978: 6,699 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 37th] (peak ranking)
  • 1977: 5,477 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 51st]
  • 1976: 5,232 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 55th]

This time it was the R&B song “Brandy” [vid] by the vocal group The O’Jays.

It was released as a single in July of 1978 and went on to peak at #79 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in October.

The song was about a dog named Brandy that had run away from home, believe it or not. An advertisement for the song in Billboard magazine offered the following visual:

Detail of an advertisement for the song "Brandy" from Billboard magazine (Aug. 1978)
“Brandy” advertisement

Future R&B singer Brandy Norwood, who was born in early 1979, might have been named with the O’Jays tune in mind.

So, how did the liquor come to be known as “brandy” in the first place? The word derives from the Dutch term brandewijn, meaning “burnt wine” (as brandy is created from wine that has been distilled via heat). It’s possible that Brandy’s emergence as a baby name in the mid-20th century was inspired by the trendiness of Sherry (which, in turn, was likely influenced by the rise of Cheryl).

What are your thoughts on the name Brandy?

Sources:

Second image: Clipping from Billboard magazine (5 Aug. 1978)

Chicago quadruplets: Sheena, Shawna, Sherry, Shannon

Dolores Harris holding quadruplet Sheena
Delores holding baby Sheena

On June 30, 1963, rare identical quadruplets were born to Delores and Bernard Harris of Chicago, Illinois.

The four baby girls were named:

  • Sheena Alice
  • Shawna Denyce
  • Sherry Julienne
  • Shannon Nellie

Delores gave them first names starting with “Sh” because she and Bernard already had a 15-month-old son named Shawn.

The first three middle names (Alice, Denyce, and Julienne) honored of staff members at Michael Reese Hospital, where the quadruplets were born. The fourth (Nellie) honored Delores’ mother.

The Harris quadruplets with mother Delores Harris and maternal grandmother Nellie Smith
Delores and Nellie holding the quads

The quads made headlines across the country as soon as they were born. The Harris family was also featured in a long article (and over a dozen photographs) in the November 1963 issue* of Ebony magazine.

All this attention may have influenced the usage of their first names, though it’s hard to tell. Here’s the data:

Girls named
Sheena		Girls named
Shawna		Girls named
Sherry		Girls named
Shannon
1965775527,3832,569
19641005898,4922,299
19631014589,0642,052
1962852959,229†1,394
1961722808,3561,235
†Peak usage

The name Sherry had just begun declining in usage in 1963, and Shawna and Shannon were already on the rise (though it does look like they rose a bit faster the year the quads were born…?). I think the strongest case can be made for Sheena, which saw a discernible uptick in 1963-1964.

What are your thoughts on these names? Which one do you like best?

*Incidentally, the same issue covered the late August civil rights demonstration during which Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sources:

Images: Clippings from Ebony magazine (Nov. 1963)