Cherie

Derived directly from the French term of endearment chérie, meaning darling or beloved. American parents adopted it in the early twentieth century as part of a broader wave of Gallic borrowings. It drifted into mainstream radio culture by the late nineteen-sixties.

A Cherie is generally pictured behind the wheel of a compact car with a cassette deck in nineteen seventy-six. The name carries the smooth, polished sheen of mid-century pop music and department-store perfume counters. Today, the average bearer is fifty-eight years old, placing her squarely in the transition zone between late Baby Boomers and early Generation X. It suggests someone who knows the words to every song on the soft-rock station.