Sheretha
A feminine name of African origin meaning "lady of virtue".
Name Census estimates that about 67 living Americans carry the first name Sheretha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sheretha today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sheretha births was 1969 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sheretha. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sheretha. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
67
~ 1 in 5,115,736 Americans
Peak year
1969
9 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
1984 SSA rank
#11,898
Tracked since 1968
Census
Sheretha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 105 people with the first name Sheretha, which placed it at #52,717 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
#52,717
National first-name rank
People counted
105
105 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
94.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sheretha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sheretha is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and White (1.9%). 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 Sheretha 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 Sheretha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American94.3% · 99
- Two or more races3.8% · 4
- White1.9% · 2
Popularity
Sheretha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sheretha from the 1960s through to the 1980s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 41 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Sheretha remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sheretha 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 Sheretha 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 Sheretha
The name Sheretha is believed to have originated from the Semitic languages spoken in the ancient Middle East. It is derived from the Hebrew root "shr," which means "to sing" or "to praise." This suggests that the name may have been associated with musical or poetic expression in its earliest usage.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sheretha can be found in the biblical Book of Ezra, where it is mentioned as the name of a Jewish woman who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian captivity in the 5th century BCE. This indicates that the name was in use among the ancient Israelites during the period of the Second Temple.
In the Middle Ages, the name Sheretha appears to have been adopted by various Christian communities in the Middle East and North Africa. It is recorded in several medieval Arabic texts, where it is often spelled as "Shariha" or "Shariha." This suggests that the name may have been popularized among Arabic-speaking Christians during this period.
One notable historical figure with the name Sheretha was Sheretha of Wearmouth, an Anglo-Saxon nun who lived in the 7th century CE. She is known for her contributions to the establishment of the Monkwearmouth-Jarrow monastery in what is now northern England, and for her role in supporting the work of the Venerable Bede, a renowned scholar and historian of the time.
Another prominent individual with the name Sheretha was Sheretha al-Dimashqi, a Syrian poet and scholar who lived in the 12th century CE. She is celebrated for her contribution to Arabic literature and is considered one of the most influential female poets of the Ayyubid period.
In the 16th century, a woman named Sheretha Zakharia was a prominent figure in the Maronite Christian community of Lebanon. She is known for her philanthropic work and for her efforts in promoting education and social welfare in the region.
While the name Sheretha has been less common in more recent centuries, it has maintained a presence in various cultures and communities around the world. Its rich history and connections to music, poetry, and spirituality have contributed to its enduring appeal as a unique and meaningful name choice.
People
Sheretha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sheretha as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sheretha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sheretha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 67 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sheretha 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 5,115,736 US residents.
Is Sheretha a common name?
We classify Sheretha as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 74 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sheretha most popular?
The single biggest year for Sheretha was 1969, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sheretha is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sheretha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 105 people with the name Sheretha, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,717 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 Sheretha 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 Sheretha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sheretha leans strongly female. 104 people counted with this name were female (93.7%), compared with 7 male bearers (6.3%). 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 Sheretha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sheretha is Black at 94.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.8%) and White (1.9%). 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 Sheretha most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sheretha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.3% (99 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 Sheretha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sheretha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sheretha 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 Sheretha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sheretha 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 Sheretha 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 people have Sheretha as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.