Sherida
A feminine name with Arabic origins meaning "rose" or "wild rose".
Name Census estimates that about 786 living Americans carry the first name Sherida. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sherida today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherida births was 1949 (71 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherida. 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
786
~ 1 in 436,074 Americans
Peak year
1949
71 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2000 SSA rank
#17,214
Tracked since 1945
Census
Sherida in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 968 people with the first name Sherida, which placed it at #12,739 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
#12,739
National first-name rank
People counted
968
968 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherida
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherida is White at 47.6%. The next largest groups are Black (39.6%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Sherida 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 Sherida at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.6% · 461
- Black or African American39.6% · 383
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 41
- Two or more races3.8% · 37
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 12
Popularity
Sherida: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherida from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 251 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sherida 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 Sherida during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sheridas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Illinois, Ohio recorded the most babies named Sherida, while Alabama, Michigan, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sherida
The name Sherida has its origins in the English language and can be traced back to the late 16th century. It is derived from the Old English words "scir" meaning "bright" and "ides" meaning "lady" or "woman". The name was initially used as a feminine form of the masculine name Sherid or Sheridan.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sherida can be found in the parish records of St. Mary's Church in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, where a Sherida Browne was baptized in 1598. This suggests that the name was in use in England during the Elizabethan era.
In the 17th century, the name Sherida gained some prominence with the English poet and playwright Sherida Polwhele (1630-1689). She was known for her works of religious poetry and her association with the literary circle of Katherine Philips.
Another notable figure bearing the name Sherida was the British actress Sherida Woolcock (1785-1854). She was a celebrated stage performer in the early 19th century and appeared in numerous productions at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
The name Sherida also has a connection to the American West. Sherida Byrd (1828-1901) was a pioneer woman who traveled the Oregon Trail in the mid-19th century and later settled in Oregon. Her diary and accounts of the arduous journey provide a valuable historical record of the era.
In the 20th century, the name Sherida was carried by Sherida Hayward (1906-1994), an American actress and dancer who appeared in several Broadway musicals and Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
It is worth noting that while the name Sherida has its roots in English history, it has been adopted and used in various cultures and regions around the world, albeit with varying spellings and pronunciations.
People
Sherida + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherida 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
Sherida: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherida?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 786 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherida 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 436,074 US residents.
Is Sherida a common name?
We classify Sherida as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 997 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherida most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherida was 1949, when 71 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherida is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherida in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 968 people with the name Sherida, or 0.32 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,739 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 Sherida 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 Sherida?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherida appears almost entirely female. Of the 956 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Sherida?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherida is White at 47.6%. The next largest groups are Black (39.6%) and Hispanic (4.2%). 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 Sherida most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sherida in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.6% (461 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 Sherida in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherida a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sherida 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 Sherida still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherida 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 Sherida 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 share the name Sherida?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.