Sally
A feminine name of uncertain origin, perhaps derived from the Hebrew name Sarah.
Name Census estimates that about 103,490 living Americans carry the first name Sally. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sally today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sally births was 1947 (5,279 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sally. 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 Sally with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sally is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 647 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Sally have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
103K
~ 1 in 3,312 Americans
Peak year
1947
5,279 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
1992 SSA rank
#1,098
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sally in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 139,328 people with the first name Sally, which placed it at #404 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
#404
National first-name rank
People counted
139K
139,328 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
46.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sally
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sally is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Sally 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 Sally at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 117,494
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 9,093
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 5,377
- Black or African American3.1% · 4,320
- Two or more races1.6% · 2,208
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 836
Gender
Gender distribution for Sally
Out of the 205,673 babies given the name Sally since 1880, 99.7% 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.
Sally as a male name
- Ranked #9,559 in 1992
- 5 male births in 1992
- Peak: 1937 (26 births)
Sally as a female name
- Ranked #1,098 in 2024
- 223 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (5,265 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sally appears almost entirely female. Of the 139,332 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sally: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sally from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 46,805 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sally 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 Sally during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sallys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Sally, while Nevada, Alaska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,840 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sally
The given name Sally is derived from the Hebrew name Sarah, which means "princess" or "noblewoman." The name Sarah is first mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, referring to the wife of the patriarch Abraham.
The name Sarah was later transliterated into Greek as Sara, and into Latin as Sarai or Sara. Over time, the name evolved through various vernacular forms in different languages, such as the French Sallie, the German Salle, and the English Sally.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sally dates back to the 13th century in England. It was a common pet form or diminutive of Sarah, used as a nickname or shortened version of the name.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Sally. One of the earliest was Sally Prideaux (1610-1692), an English Puritan writer and religious thinker. Another prominent figure was Sally Fairfax (1647-1719), an American colonist and the wife of William Fairfax, a prominent landowner in Virginia.
In the 18th century, Sally Lunn (c. 1676-1776) was a famous English baker known for creating the famous Sally Lunn bun, a type of bread roll. Another notable Sally from this period was Sally Wister (1737-1804), an American diarist and socialite whose journals provided valuable insights into colonial life in Philadelphia.
In the 19th century, Sally Ride (1951-2012) became the first American woman in space when she served as a crew member on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. Another famous Sally was Sally Field (born 1946), an American actress known for her roles in films such as Norma Rae and Places in the Heart, for which she won Academy Awards.
Other notable Sallys throughout history include Sally Hemings (1773-1835), an enslaved woman who had a long-term relationship with Thomas Jefferson; Sally Ride (1951-2012), the first American woman in space; and Sally Rooney (born 1991), an Irish novelist and author of the acclaimed novels Conversations with Friends and Normal People.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sally
People
Sally + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sally 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
Sally: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sally?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103,490 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sally 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 3,312 US residents.
Is Sally a common name?
We classify Sally as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 205,673 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sally most popular?
The single biggest year for Sally was 1947, when 5,279 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sally is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sally in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 139,328 people with the name Sally, or 46.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #404 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 Sally 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 Sally?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sally appears almost entirely female. Of the 139,332 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 Sally?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sally is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.9%). 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 Sally most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sally in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (117,494 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 Sally in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sally a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Sally 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 Sally still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sally 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 Sally 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 Americans are named Sally?
See how many Americans are named Sally on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.