The Cherry Ames Page: Wherefore Art Thou, Cherry?

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Wherefore Art Thou, Cherry?

"... there's something dif-frunt in every one of these bottles. Orange, lemon, lime, apple, pineapple, prune, apricot, even one named after you, Cherry."

--From Cherry Ames, Cruise Nurse, p. 94

Though some sources list Cherry as a form of the name Cheryl, meaning "beloved," others say it simply means "cherrylike," or that it is--as Cherry Ames has sometimes claimed--a form of the name Charity.

The Name Game

Whatever its derivation, Cherry has never been a common name in the United States. Social Security data show that it did not appear among the top 1,000 names for girls in the decade of the 1900s (when Charity was in 641st place) or the 1910s (when Charity was in 887th place), but in the 1920s the name Cherry tied for 850th place with Adelle, Caryl, Ethelene, Evangelina, Eve, Georgine, Grayce, Hedwig, Juliet, Madaline, Ocie, Pamela, Peggie, Providenci, Toni, Vivien--and Harold. (Charity, meanwhile, vanished from the top names in the 1920s, and did not reappear till the 1970s.)

A Cherry by Any Other Name

Cherry or Charity? Legal name or nickname? Even Cherry's not sure. Click here to read more!

A slight uptick in the 1930s moved Cherry into 836th place, along with Alpha, Bridget, Colette, Daphne, Dorcas, Dorotha, Jovita, Larue, Lucretia, Mina, Mittie, Myrtice, and Sandy. And in the 1930s, the similar-sounding names Cheryl (623rd place) and Cherie (804th place) also appear on the list for the first time.

By the 1940s--perhaps because the new Cherry Ames series had helped popularize the name?--Cherry had surged all the way up to 536th place, tied with Celeste, Corrine, Jessica, and Nan. In that decade Cheryl shot all the way up to 44th place; and Cheri (422nd place), Cherie (499th place), and Cheryle (641st place) also made respectable showings.

The name Cherry dipped slightly, to sole possession of 566th place, in the 1950s. But Cheryl soared to 19th place. Also making the list were Cheri (290th place), Cherie (370th place), Cheryle (716th place), and Cherri (839th place).

Then came the 1960s, and a sharp decline to 805th place, where Cherry tied with Marlo, Mechelle, and Twila. In that decade Cheryl dipped slightly to 28th place, with Cheri (247th place), Cherie (316th place), and Cheryle (839th place) still holding on.

Fading Cherry

Alas, Cherry dropped entirely from the top 1,000 names in the 1970s--possibly a reflection of the fact that the Cherry Ames series had ended in 1968?--and has not recovered.

Cheri appeared in the 1970s at 320th place and in the 1980s at 638th place before disappearing in the 1990s. Cherie dropped to 365th place in the 1970s and 591st place in the 1980s, before it, too, fell off the chart. Cherise popped briefly onto the 1980s list at 922nd place, and Cherish was a blip on the 1980s list at 989th place. Cheryl has continued to appear, though the name's use dropped significantly with each passing decade: from 80th in the 1970s to 196th in the 1980s to 671st in the 1990s.

Oddly enough, while the use of the name Cherry declined, Charity suddenly had a major resurgence in the 1970s, zooming all the way up at 277th place; it stayed close in the 1980s, at 284th place, before declining to 494th place in the 1990s. Cherry and Charity have not been in the top 1,000 names at the same time.

Information on name distribution in the United States is taken from the Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names.