Cherish
Cherish was given to 160 girls in 2025, #1,374 among girls’ names; 11,352 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 11,100 Americans named Cherish and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 13 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cherish by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cherish mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cherish is “a female given name.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cherish?
#1,374 among girls’ names, 2025
Cherish fell from #938 in 2015 to #1,374 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.16 to 0.10 per 1,000.
461 babies in 2007, the peak
Cherish peaked in 2007, when 461 girls were given it, #643 among girls’ names. The 160 births of 2025 are 35% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 160 | #1,374 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 148 | #1,475 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 131 | #1,597 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 139 | #1,541 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 199 | #1,206 | 0.12 |
| 2020 | 221 | #1,107 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 251 | #1,025 | 0.15 |
| 2018 | 242 | #1,057 | 0.14 |
| 2017 | 258 | #1,007 | 0.15 |
| 2016 | 277 | #972 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 289 | #938 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 350 | #802 | 0.20 |
| 2013 | 348 | #780 | 0.20 |
| 2012 | 360 | #766 | 0.20 |
| 2011 | 386 | #716 | 0.22 |
| 2010 | 369 | #751 | 0.21 |
| 2009 | 422 | #692 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 407 | #732 | 0.22 |
| 2007 | 461 | #643 | 0.24 |
| 2006 | 371 | #743 | 0.20 |
| 2005 | 206 | #1,135 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 232 | #1,017 | 0.13 |
| 2003 | 200 | #1,099 | 0.11 |
| 2002 | 189 | #1,108 | 0.11 |
| 2001 | 196 | #1,085 | 0.11 |
| 2000 | 181 | #1,126 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 159 | #1,202 | 0.09 |
| 1998 | 155 | #1,194 | 0.09 |
| 1997 | 179 | #1,060 | 0.10 |
| 1996 | 156 | #1,163 | 0.09 |
| 1995 | 162 | #1,093 | 0.09 |
| 1994 | 143 | #1,222 | 0.08 |
| 1993 | 183 | #1,011 | 0.10 |
| 1992 | 168 | #1,075 | 0.09 |
| 1991 | 175 | #1,042 | 0.09 |
| 1990 | 184 | #993 | 0.10 |
| 1989 | 223 | #839 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 199 | #886 | 0.11 |
| 1987 | 243 | #744 | 0.14 |
| 1986 | 263 | #692 | 0.15 |
| 1985 | 192 | #846 | 0.11 |
| 1984 | 210 | #767 | 0.12 |
| 1983 | 160 | #931 | 0.10 |
| 1982 | 96 | #1,309 | 0.06 |
| 1981 | 73 | #1,600 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 63 | #1,750 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 77 | #1,518 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 84 | #1,387 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 103 | #1,193 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 92 | #1,225 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 104 | #1,120 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 132 | #940 | 0.09 |
| 1973 | 86 | #1,226 | 0.06 |
| 1972 | 85 | #1,237 | 0.06 |
| 1971 | 63 | #1,550 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 40 | #2,051 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 44 | #1,873 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 28 | #2,307 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 24 | #2,502 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #3,999 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cherish a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cherish has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 60 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cherish: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cherish, and how old are they?
11,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 11,352 Americans ever recorded as Cherish. The median Cherish alive today is 20 years old; half are between 13 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 8,334 people named Cherish (8,284 women and girls, 50 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,257 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 972 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,750 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,430 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,990 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Cherish born?
The states with the most babies named Cherish are Florida, Georgia and Texas, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 15 | #1,012 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 14 | #714 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 9 | #2,255 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 9 | #760 | 0.9× |
| Indiana | 9 | #665 | 0.8× |
| California | 8 | #2,314 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,043 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,169 | 1.0× |
| New York | 7 | #1,686 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,097 | 1.1× |
Where Cherish is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cherish is most over-represented in South Carolina: since 1966 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Cherish with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 12,149 babies since 1880, Cherish is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 160 of their 160 babies (100%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cherish
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cherish and names like it
- Compare Cherish and CherrishBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCherish peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cherish since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Cherish.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cherish alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.