Cherish

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Sherry in US United States, GB United Kingdom, CA Canada and 16 more, Sheri in ES Spain, IN India, Sherri in DE Germany, NZ New Zealand and שארי in FI Finland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Cherish is also recorded as another name, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Ukrainian surname45 records spelled Cherish5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Ukraine, United States, Russia

  Languages: Ukrainian, Russian

  Also written Чериш

44 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Cherish is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, To treat with affection, care, and tenderness; to nurture or protect with care.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• English: modern coinage, apparently an alteration of CHERYTH to match the vocabulary element cherish to treasure, care for (borrowed in the Middle Ages from Old French cherir , a derivative of cher dear).

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 60 years between 1966–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Cherish Andrewsb. 1989USAmerican poker player
• Cherish HollandUSAmerican actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 145 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Cherish?

We estimate roughly 235 thousand people bear Cherish (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Cherish have the most bearers?

We estimate about 187 thousand people bear Cherish in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled sherry.

Where is Cherish most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Cherish is densest in Finland — about 1 in 193 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Cherish compared with other names?

In the United States, Cherish is the 124th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Cherish a male or female name?

Cherish is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Cherish mean?

Recorded meaning: Modern coinage, apparently an alteration of Cheryth to match the vocabulary word cherish ‘to treasure’, ‘care for’ (borrowed in the Middle Ages from Old French cherir, a derivative of cher ‘dear’).