Sherwood
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "bright wood".
Name Census estimates that about 2,473 living Americans carry the first name Sherwood. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sherwood today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sherwood births was 1938 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sherwood. 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
2.5K
~ 1 in 138,599 Americans
Peak year
1938
120 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,009
Tracked since 1891
Census
Sherwood in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,577 people with the first name Sherwood, which placed it at #6,261 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
#6,261
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,577 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sherwood
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherwood is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). 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 Sherwood 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 Sherwood at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 1,768
- Black or African American23.8% · 613
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 66
- Two or more races2.5% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 41
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 24
Gender
Gender distribution for Sherwood
Out of the 5,681 babies given the name Sherwood since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Sherwood as a male name
- Ranked #9,708 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1938 (120 births)
Sherwood as a female name
- Ranked #6,009 in 1947
- 5 female births in 1947
- Peak: 1923 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherwood leans strongly male. 2,509 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 71 female bearers (2.8%).
Popularity
Sherwood: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sherwood from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,016 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sherwood 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 Sherwood during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sherwoods live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Sherwood, while Wisconsin, Iowa, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 124 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sherwood
The given name Sherwood has its origins in Old English, deriving from the elements "sceor" meaning bright or shining, and "wudu" meaning wood or forest. It was initially used as a surname in medieval England, referring to someone who lived near or worked in a bright or shining wood.
The earliest recorded use of Sherwood as a given name can be traced back to the 13th century, when it was occasionally bestowed upon individuals born or residing in the famous Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England. This verdant expanse of ancient oaks and vibrant greenery was the legendary hideout of the renowned folk hero, Robin Hood, and his band of merry men.
During the Middle Ages, the name Sherwood remained relatively uncommon, but it gained some prominence in the literary realm. One notable bearer was Sherwood Holroyd, an English poet and playwright who lived in the 16th century. His works, though not widely celebrated today, shed light on the cultural and societal norms of his era.
In the 17th century, the Puritan movement in England influenced naming traditions, leading to an increased use of names with religious or virtuous connotations. Sherwood, with its association with the natural world and the bright, shining woods, was occasionally chosen by Puritan families as a suitable name for their children.
As the British Empire expanded its reach, the name Sherwood traveled to various corners of the globe. One prominent figure bearing this name was Sherwood Idleness, a British explorer and adventurer who embarked on daring expeditions across Africa in the late 19th century, contributing to the mapping and understanding of uncharted territories.
In more recent times, Sherwood has been embraced by individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures. A notable bearer was Sherwood Anderson, an American writer and novelist born in 1876, best known for his short story cycle "Winesburg, Ohio." His works captured the complexities of small-town life and the struggles of everyday people, earning him a prominent place in the canon of American literature.
Other notable figures with the given name Sherwood include Sherwood Rowland, an American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate born in 1927, whose groundbreaking research on the depletion of the ozone layer led to the global phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons. Additionally, Sherwood Schwartz, born in 1916, was an American television writer and producer, creator of the iconic sitcoms "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch."
People
Sherwood + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sherwood 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
Sherwood: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sherwood?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,473 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sherwood 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 138,599 US residents.
Is Sherwood a common name?
We classify Sherwood as "Rare". It ranks above 94.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sherwood most popular?
The single biggest year for Sherwood was 1938, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sherwood is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sherwood in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,577 people with the name Sherwood, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,261 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 Sherwood 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 Sherwood?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sherwood leans strongly male. 2,509 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 71 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Sherwood?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sherwood is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (23.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.6%). 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 Sherwood most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sherwood in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (1,768 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 Sherwood in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sherwood a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Sherwood in the SSA data are male. 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 Sherwood still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sherwood 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 Sherwood 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 Sherwood as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Sherwood on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.