Kerry is from the Irish County Kerry (Ciarraí, "the people of Ciar") — from ciar, "dark, black." A top-100 US baby name from 1968 to 1974, peaking at #74 in 1969. Kerry Washington (born 1977) — *American actress; played Olivia Pope on ABC's Scandal (2012-2018) — one of the first Black women to lead a network drama in nearly 40 years; the role earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (2013, 2014) and a Golden Globe nomination. Founded production company Simpson Street; produces Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere (2020) for which she received another Emmy nomination. Founder of the When We All Vote initiative (2018) co-chaired with Michelle Obama. Kerry Russell — actually Keri Russell (different spelling). Kerry Madsen — Australian sprintcar racer. Kerry-Anne Kennerley — Australian TV host. Kerry Strug (born 1977)* — American gymnast; her iconic one-footed vault landing on an injured ankle at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics secured Team USA's first Olympic team gold in women's gymnastics; she was carried to the podium by coach Béla Károlyi. The moment is one of the most-watched Olympic memories of the 1990s.
Featured throughout American TV, gymnastics, and Irish heritage.
Kerry does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Kerry reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.