Sadie
A feminine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess".
Name Census estimates that about 93,139 living Americans carry the first name Sadie. It sits at #57 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sadie today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sadie births was 2014 (4,870 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Elena (92,959).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sadie. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Sadie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sadie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 241 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
93K
~ 1 in 3,680 Americans
Peak year
2014
4,870 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2021 SSA rank
#57
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sadie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 75,240 people with the first name Sadie, which placed it at #691 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#691
National first-name rank
People counted
75K
75,240 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
24.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sadie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sadie is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Black (6.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sadie described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sadie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.2% · 58,090
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 6,938
- Black or African American6.7% · 5,027
- Two or more races4.6% · 3,473
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 904
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 808
Gender
Gender distribution for Sadie
Out of the 145,728 babies given the name Sadie since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Sadie as a male name
- Ranked #11,869 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1926 (11 births)
Sadie as a female name
- Ranked #57 in 2024
- 3,729 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (4,870 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sadie appears almost entirely female. Of the 75,243 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sadie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sadie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 36,599 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Sadie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sadie by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sadie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sadies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Sadie, while Delaware, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,393 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sadie
The name Sadie has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture. It is a diminutive form of the name Sarah, which means "princess" or "lady." The earliest recorded use of the name Sadie dates back to the late 19th century, although the name Sarah has been used for centuries.
In the Bible, Sarah was the name of the wife of the patriarch Abraham and the mother of Isaac. She is an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The name Sarah is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament and is highly revered in these faiths.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sadie can be found in the 1871 novel "The Last Chronicle of Barset" by Anthony Trollope, where a character named Sadie is mentioned. However, the name did not gain widespread popularity until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Sadie. One of the most famous was Sadie Hawkins, a fictional character created by cartoonist Al Capp in the comic strip "Li'l Abner" in 1937. The Sadie Hawkins dance, where women traditionally ask men to be their dates, became a popular cultural phenomenon.
Another notable Sadie was Sadie Plant (1887-1955), an American actress and vaudeville performer who appeared in numerous Broadway productions and films during the early 20th century. She is often credited with popularizing the name Sadie in the United States.
In the field of literature, Sadie Thompson was the protagonist of the 1915 short story "Rain" by W. Somerset Maugham. The story was later adapted into a successful Broadway play and several films, further increasing the name's recognition.
Sadie Marcus (1885-1959) was an American lawyer and activist who played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement. She was one of the first female lawyers in Missouri and fought for women's rights and legal equality.
Sadie Sink (born 2002) is a contemporary American actress known for her roles in the television series "Stranger Things" and the horror film "Fear Street." Her portrayal of Max Mayfield in "Stranger Things" has earned her critical acclaim and a dedicated fan following.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sadie
People
Sadie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sadie as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sadie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sadie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 93,139 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sadie going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,680 US residents.
Is Sadie a common name?
We classify Sadie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 145,728 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sadie most popular?
The single biggest year for Sadie was 2014, when 4,870 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sadie is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sadie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 75,240 people with the name Sadie, or 24.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #691 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sadie in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sadie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sadie appears almost entirely female. Of the 75,243 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sadie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sadie is White at 77.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Black (6.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sadie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sadie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.2% (58,090 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sadie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sadie a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Sadie in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sadie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sadie in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sadie can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Sadie as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.