Chelli vs Cheryl
American parents have registered 440,517 Cheryls since 1880, against 86 Chellis. Cheryl is still ahead, with 32 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Chelli Cheryl
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Cheryl has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1909 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 1974, when Chelli had 7 and Cheryl had 3,513.
Side by side
| Chelli | Cheryl | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 86 | 440,517 |
| Most in one year | 15 | 24,178 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 32 |
| Estimated living today | 80 | 361,000 |
| Median age today | 55 | 66 |
| Peak year | 1964 | 1958 |
| Best rank | 3,379th girls | 13th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 4,352nd |
| First recorded | 1962 | 1909 |
| Girls / boys | 86 / 0 | 439,539 / 978 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Cheryls alive today are over 66; half the Chellis are over 55. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Chelli and Cheryl.