Name Awesome

Sherwood

Boys' name

Bright forest

Sherwood has been given to 5,682 babies in the U.S. since 1891. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1938, with 120 recorded.

Babies named Sherwood, 2024

1 in 418,000

Sherwood over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sherwood: meaning, origin, and history

Bright forest

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sherwood means

Sherwood means “bright forest”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Sherwood is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈʃɜɹ.wʊd/ and /ˈʃɜː.wʊd/ for Sherwood.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,671 boys were recorded with the name Sherwood between 1891 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 120 in 1938; its best national rank was #534 in 1938.

In the United States, 11 girls were recorded with the name Sherwood between 1923 and 1947. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1923; its best national rank was #4,895 in 1923.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Sherwood?

Sherwood had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 418,000
8 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 215,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
289,633 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sherwood sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 289,633 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sherwood. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sherwoods were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sherwood was born before 1941 — so the typical Sherwood is around 84 today.

Median birth year
1941
About 84 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
17.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,037
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 17.8% of all recorded uses (1,010).

Is Sherwood rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1938 (120)
Years since peak
87
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#534
1938

Spellings of Sherwood

Sherwood is the most-used spelling, taking 61.4% of the 9,235 babies given a near-identical spelling.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Sherwood is used

Across 1910–2025, Sherwood was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 9,091 boys, against 1 in 47,819 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

011 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 9,091
  2. 2North Carolina1 in 11,111
  3. 3Virginia1 in 14,286
  4. 4Pennsylvania1 in 16,667
  5. 5Connecticut1 in 25,000
  6. 6New York1 in 25,000
  7. 7Michigan1 in 50,000
  8. 8California1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Sherwood has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Sherwood

People whose public names include Sherwood, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Sherwood by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#534
1938
Peak year
1938
120 that year
First recorded
1891
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
5,671
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,895
1923
Peak year
1923
6 that year
First recorded
1923
Last recorded
1947
All-time count
11
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Sherwood

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ShepherdSheridanSherwinShepardSheltonShedrickSheppardHaywoodSherrillShemarShelbySheldonShermanSherrodSheamusShelleySheaGlenwoodLynwoodShellySherrellShellieNorwoodShervin

Names with a curve like Sherwood

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Sherwood, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

BoyceHaywardAlvisOthaReynoldMeltonRogersRollinRayfordGaylordLawerenceWinford

Sibling names for Sherwood

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Sherwood

Top names of 1938, Sherwood's peak yearThe 1930s in fullOther names that peaked in 1938Boys' names starting with S