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I certainly believe names are "valid" even if they were created yesterday.

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(Technically, Cheryl may go back about a decade before 1900 since the earliest sure example in the United States census seems to be Cheryl Merrill, born in Michigan in August 1889 and living with her widowed mother Alice in Oakland, California in 1900.)

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I think Cheryl is an excellent example of how a spelling which is actually rather unusual in terms of everyday English can become cemented as the "normal" spelling in people's minds.

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The theatrical producer Cheryl Crawford (born in Ohio in 1902) helped to make the name famous and is certainly an example of a woman who was extremely successful in a "masculine" career at a time when that was difficult for women. I think having her as a namesake should make any woman proud.

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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cheryl-Crawford

I have an aunt by that name, albeit a different spelling. I’m pretty neutral to it. It’s pretty dated regardless when the name was invented.

I try really hard to be fair about why I don't like a name that is attributed to a particular age group; I think it's very misogynistic to reject a name only because it belongs to women who are middle aged or elderly. But going on the name's own qualities, I only see a lack thereof. It seems meant to compete with Sherry and Cherie, and I don't like those names either. But I like Meryl and Beryl. I wonder why. I will think about it more.

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Your point is taken about languages evolving; I have been working on being less prescriptive and pedantic about names, and about English in general. I belong to one facebook group where I think people are far too reactionary about names they deem weird or new; I like to joke that basically the only names people ever like in that group are Henry and Alice. Then there are other, more "basic" (in the pejorative sense) groups where people are looking for baby names, and they are going completely in the other direction, flipping to the middle of a phonics book and marrying random syllables haphazardly. (Or worse, using words from weapons catalogs for their sons.)

I like the sound of it but it doesn't really have much history as a name. Still, I don't think there is anything wrong with the name and it can work for any age. The spelling Sheryl is not as good as the spelling Cheryl and I have no idea why but I have always thought Cheryl looked better.

This message was edited 2/4/2019, 6:29 AM

My husband had a secretary whose name was Cheryl, but this was a deep dark secret. She went by Cherie and tried to hide the fact that her full name was Cheryl. Somehow my husband found out. There was another employee whose first name was Thelma but she went by her middle name, Lucy, and the fact that her first name was Thelma was also a deep dark secret. Somehow he found this out, too, so one day he entered the room where they both were and said, "Hi. Cheryl. Hi, Thelma" to which Thelma/Lucy replied, "Get the hell out."

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Evidently Cherie hated her full name, but I'm pretty neutral towards Cheryl. I don't really like it but I don't hate it.

I'm not sure what people mean by 'not valid', but it's definitely a dated fad name at this point.

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I've got nothing against it, though. I think it's one of the better names from its time period, and I prefer it to Beryl or Sherry. I can imagine a young Cheryl.

This message was edited 2/3/2019, 12:19 PM

The sound is not that bad, really. It's better than Sharon, anyway. (Of course I don't like the slurred Shurl sound some people make of it.)
But the spelling is not very nice. the yl ending looks like a medicine or chemical name to me. Bicheryl tridarryl merylhydroxide, good for acid indigestion but highly flammable.

To me it is dated. I can see the appeal and why people started using it though. I do like its modern reinvented versions I have seen in other countries like the Polish Szeryla (very rare) and the French Chéryle.

I prefer Sheryl. I don't know why. Maybe because when I was a young teen I idolized Sheryl Crow?

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Anyway, now I think it's solidly hideous. There is some friend of the family I've heard mentioned several times whose name is Shuryl, like "SURE-ul" and it strikes me so funny. It just sounds so much like it belongs in this sentence "Mama, Shuryl's in the outhouse hidin' from the snakes!"

I don't enjoy the sound of it, and that goes for Beryl and Meryl as well. And I've known it shortened to Cherry, which is awful. But it's as valid as most other names: not nearly as bad as Huntyr, for instance!

I have an aunt and two aunts-in-law named Cheryl, so to me it's basically the quintessential aunt name, lol. It's kind of hard for me to form an opinion on it because that association is so strong.