Charish
A unique feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a combination blend.
Name Census estimates that about 424 living Americans carry the first name Charish. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Charish today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charish births was 2007 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charish. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
424
~ 1 in 808,383 Americans
Peak year
2007
27 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2019 SSA rank
#14,169
Tracked since 1976
Census
Charish in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 418 people with the first name Charish, which placed it at #23,409 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#23,409
National first-name rank
People counted
418
418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charish
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charish is White at 38.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.4%) and Two or More Races (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Charish described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Charish at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.3% · 160
- Black or African American34.4% · 144
- Two or more races9.3% · 39
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.7% · 32
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.2% · 9
Popularity
Charish: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charish from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 155 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Charish remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charish by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Charish during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charish
The given name Charish has its origins in ancient Mesopotamia, tracing back to the Sumerian language spoken in the region around the 3rd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sumerian words "charis" meaning "grace" and "ish" meaning "life," thus denoting a meaning along the lines of "graceful life" or "life of grace."
This name was relatively uncommon in ancient times, but it did appear in a few cuneiform inscriptions and clay tablets discovered in the ruins of various Sumerian cities. One notable instance is a reference to a priestess named Charish who served in the temple of the goddess Inanna in the city of Uruk around 2500 BCE.
The name Charish gained some popularity during the Babylonian period, as evidenced by a few mentions in the Babylonian Chronicles, which were a series of historical inscriptions detailing the reigns of various kings and significant events. One such reference is to a scribe named Charish who served under King Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE.
In the later centuries, the name appeared sporadically in various regions influenced by the ancient Mesopotamian cultures. For instance, there is a record of a Persian nobleman named Charish who lived during the Sassanid Empire in the 5th century CE.
Another notable bearer of the name Charish was a Byzantine scholar and philosopher who lived in the 9th century CE. He is known for his commentary on the works of Aristotle and his contribution to the preservation of ancient Greek knowledge during the Byzantine era.
The name Charish also found its way into the Islamic world, where it was sometimes rendered as "Kharish" or "Kharishu." One example is a Persian poet named Kharish al-Nishaburi, who lived in the 11th century CE and was renowned for his lyrical compositions and ghazals.
While the name Charish has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has been carried by a few individuals of note, such as the 12th-century Seljuk vizier Charish al-Mulk, who served under Sultan Malik Shah I and was known for his administrative reforms and patronage of arts and literature.
People
Charish + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charish as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Charish: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charish?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 424 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charish going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 808,383 US residents.
Is Charish a common name?
We classify Charish as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 435 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charish most popular?
The single biggest year for Charish was 2007, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charish is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charish in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 418 people with the name Charish, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,409 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Charish in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Charish?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Charish leans strongly female. 407 people counted with this name were female (97.1%), compared with 12 male bearers (2.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Charish?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charish is White at 38.3%. The next largest groups are Black (34.4%) and Two or More Races (9.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Charish most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charish in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.3% (160 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Charish in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charish a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Charish in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Charish still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charish in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Charish can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Charish?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.