Sherle
A feminine name derived from the Old English word "scir" meaning bright or shining.
Name Census estimates that about 37 living Americans carry the first name Sherle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sherle today is around 69 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherle births was 1921 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherle. 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
- • The typical person named Sherle is about 69 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sherles were born before 1967.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sherle. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
37
~ 1 in 9,263,631 Americans
Peak year
1921
7 babies that year
Average age
69
years old
1965 SSA rank
#7,357
Tracked since 1920
Census
Sherle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 121 people with the first name Sherle, which placed it at #50,149 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
#50,149
National first-name rank
People counted
121
121 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherle is White at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Sherle 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 Sherle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.5% · 78
- Black or African American23.1% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 6
- Two or more races4.1% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 1
Popularity
Sherle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherle from the 1920s through to the 1960s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 32 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Sherle remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sherle 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 Sherle 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 Sherle
The name Sherle has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the Old English word "scir," which means "bright" or "shining," and the suffix "-le," a diminutive form indicating smallness or endearment. The name was likely given to children with a bright or radiant appearance or demeanor.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sherle can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners and their holdings in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. It mentions a landowner named Sherle de Ware, residing in the county of Hertfordshire.
In the 13th century, a notable figure bearing the name Sherle was Sherle de Pitton, a wealthy English landowner and knight who served as a member of parliament during the reign of King Edward I. He was born around 1250 and died in 1307.
During the Renaissance period, a prominent individual named Sherle was Sherle di Arezzo, an Italian painter and architect active in the 15th century. He was renowned for his frescoes and architectural designs, particularly his work on the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo, Italy.
In the 17th century, Sherle de Montaigu was a French nobleman and military leader who fought in the Thirty Years' War. He was born in 1590 and died in battle in 1638, having earned a reputation for his bravery and tactical prowess.
Another notable figure with the name Sherle was Sherle Pomeroy, an American historian and scholar who lived from 1892 to 1974. He was a professor at Columbia University and authored several influential works on ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, including "The Civilization of Ancient Greece" and "The Civilization of Ancient Rome."
While the name Sherle has fallen out of common usage in modern times, it remains a part of historical records and serves as a reminder of the rich cultural heritage and linguistic diversity that has shaped the development of names throughout the centuries.
People
Sherle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherle 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
Sherle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherle 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 9,263,631 US residents.
Is Sherle a common name?
We classify Sherle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 69 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherle most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherle was 1921, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherle is about 69 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 121 people with the name Sherle, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #50,149 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 Sherle 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 Sherle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherle leans strongly female. 112 people counted with this name were female (90.3%), compared with 12 male bearers (9.7%). 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 Sherle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherle is White at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Black (23.1%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Sherle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sherle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.5% (78 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 Sherle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sherle 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 Sherle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherle 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 Sherle 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 are named Sherle?
Find out how many Americans are named Sherle on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.