Shermaine
A fеminіne name of unknowп origіn, possibly a variant of the French namе Germаinе.
Name Census estimates that about 622 living Americans carry the first name Shermaine. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Shermaine today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Shermaine births was 1980 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Shermaine. 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
622
~ 1 in 551,052 Americans
Peak year
1980
43 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2008 SSA rank
#12,317
Tracked since 1947
Census
Shermaine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 709 people with the first name Shermaine, which placed it at #16,031 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
#16,031
National first-name rank
People counted
709
709 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
81.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Shermaine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shermaine is Black at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%) and White (5.1%). 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 Shermaine 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 Shermaine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American81.9% · 581
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.5% · 46
- White5.1% · 36
- Two or more races3.5% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Shermaine
Shermaine is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 681 total registrations, 173 (25.4%) were male and 508 (74.6%) were female.
Shermaine as a male name
- Ranked #12,317 in 2008
- 6 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1980 (20 births)
Shermaine as a female name
- Ranked #18,760 in 2005
- 5 female births in 2005
- Peak: 1980 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shermaine on both sides of the split. Of the 708 people counted with this name, 162 were male (22.9%) and 546 were female (77.1%).
Popularity
Shermaine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Shermaine 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 228 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
Shermaine 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 Shermaine 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 Shermaine
The name Shermaine is a modern variation of the French name Germaine, which itself derives from the Latin name Germanus, meaning "brother" or "germane" (akin, related). The earliest recorded use of the name Germaine dates back to the 5th century AD, during the later years of the Western Roman Empire.
Germanus was initially a Roman family name, but it later became a popular given name among early Christians in France and other parts of Western Europe. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Saint Germain of Auxerre (378-448 AD), a renowned bishop and missionary who helped to spread Christianity in ancient Gaul.
In the 8th century, a notable figure named Germaine Cousin (1579-1601) lived in the village of Pibrac, near Toulouse, France. Despite being born to a poor family, Germaine Cousin is revered as a humble and devout servant of God, known for her generosity and piety. She was canonized as a saint by Pope Pius IX in 1867.
During the Middle Ages, the name Germaine was also borne by several noble women, including Germaine of Foix (1490-1538), who was the Queen Consort of Aragon and Navarre through her marriage to King Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Another famous bearer of the name was Germaine de Staël (1766-1817), a Swiss-French writer and philosopher who played a significant role in the literary and political circles of her time. She was a prominent figure during the French Revolution and the Romantic era, known for her influential works such as "De l'Allemagne" (On Germany) and her novel "Corinne."
The variant spelling Shermaine emerged more recently, likely in the 20th century, as a modern and distinctive form of the traditional name Germaine. While less common than the original spelling, Shermaine has gained popularity in some regions, particularly in parts of the English-speaking world.
People
Shermaine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Shermaine 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
Shermaine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Shermaine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 622 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Shermaine 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 551,052 US residents.
Is Shermaine a common name?
We classify Shermaine as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Shermaine most popular?
The single biggest year for Shermaine was 1980, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Shermaine is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Shermaine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 709 people with the name Shermaine, or 0.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,031 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 Shermaine 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 Shermaine?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Shermaine on both sides of the split. Of the 708 people counted with this name, 162 were male (22.9%) and 546 were female (77.1%). 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 Shermaine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Shermaine is Black at 81.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (6.5%) and White (5.1%). 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 Shermaine most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Shermaine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.9% (581 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 Shermaine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Shermaine a female name?
Yes, 74.6% of people registered as Shermaine 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 Shermaine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Shermaine 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 Shermaine 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 common is the name Shermaine?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.