Cheryl

Cheryl is an Anglicization of the French word chérie meaning 'beloved' or 'dear'.

The very first Cheryl found in the United States Census was Cheryl Merrill, who was born August 23, 1889 in Menominee County, Michigan and was living in northern California with her mother in 1900. As an adult she became a college professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and married two different Presidents of that college, first Richard F. Scholz (1880-1924), and then after she was widowed Ernest Boyd MacNaughton (1880-1960). In official records made after her second marriage she is usually called Cheryl Scholz MacNaughton. She died in Portland on January 1, 1974. Unfortunately I've not yet been able to find any information on how her parents chose her name, but whether they invented it themselves or found it in some obscure written source, they seem to have been the first people to name a real child Cheryl, at least with that spelling.

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https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/77730747/cheryl-scholz_macnaughton

Lana Turner had a daughter, Cheryl Crane; not Rita Hayworth. MY MOTHER wanted to call me Lee. BIO father got his way. I changed my name to Cheryl-Leigh Katarina and use Katarina more. Cheryl is an anglicized version of the French girl's name Cheri. It was introduced into America by French Canadians. I read it was the most popular girl name in the USA in 1967. But reports vary. Cheryl Crow was a famous Canadian singer in the 1990s. Cheryl Cole is current in the UK as a singer and model. SHE is in her 30s and very popular. Cher means expensive in French. CHERE means dear one IN French. Cheri means 'my darling' in French. It has connections to Welsh culture too. Cheryllyn was Cher; the singer's original name.

From what I understand, the name Cheryl has two possible origins. One could be it's a feminized spelling of the male name Ceorl which is the Anglo-Saxon version of Charles. This would mean Cheryl is a name much in the same vein as Charlotte, Carly, Caroline, Carla and so on.

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The second, and IMO more likely origin is that Cheryl is a variant of Cherie which in turn is the French version of the Italian name Cara which means Darling. There is also the very similar Welsh name Carys.

Cheryl means beloved.

Actually this name is older than the 1900's, though not widely used. It is the feminine form of the name, Charles, which can mean "manly", thus Cheryl means "womanly". It is actually more Saxon or Germanic than French.

Actually Cheryl was in use at least a couple of decades before the 1920s. The first famous person to have the name was the Broadway producer Cheryl Crawford, who was born in 1902. All of the information I have on her so far gives her name matter of factly and so I don't think it was a stage name she invented after she became an adult:
http://www3.uakron.edu/schlcomm/womenshistory/crawford_c.htm
[noted -ed]