Cher

Where Cher comes from

Cher hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1948
    First appearance
    #5,243 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1958
    Cher Wang born
    Taiwanese entrepreneur and philanthropist
  3. 1972
    Peak, #651
    235 babies named Cher — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1974
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,124.
  5. 1993
    Cher Lloyd born
    English singer
  6. 1997
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Cher Lloyd · English singer, born 1993
  • Cher Wang · Taiwanese entrepreneur and philanthropist, born 1958
  • Cher Scarlett · American software engineer, writer, labor activist, and corporate whistleblower, born 1985

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.