Sallye
A feminine English variant of the Hebrew name Sarah, meaning "princess".
Name Census estimates that about 349 living Americans carry the first name Sallye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sallye today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sallye births was 1942 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sallye. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Sallye is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sallyes were born before 1962.
People living today
349
~ 1 in 982,104 Americans
Peak year
1942
33 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1983 SSA rank
#9,962
Tracked since 1888
Popularity
Sallye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sallye from the 1880s through to the 1980s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 249 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sallye 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 Sallye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sallyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Sallye, while Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sallye
The name Sallye is an English variant of the name Sally, which is a diminutive form of the name Sarah. The name Sarah has Hebrew origins and is derived from the Hebrew word "sarah," meaning "princess" or "noblewoman." It is believed to have originated around the 1st century BCE.
The name Sallye first appeared in English records during the Middle Ages, around the 13th century. It was a common spelling variant of Sally, which was a popular name among English-speaking communities at the time. The spelling "Sallye" was likely influenced by French and Norman spellings of the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sallye can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landowners in England compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears as "Sallye" in reference to a landowner in the county of Norfolk.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Sallye. One such person was Sallye Middleton (1592-1670), an English Puritan settler who was among the first group of settlers to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. Another was Sallye Blossom (1663-1727), a prominent Quaker minister and author from Pennsylvania.
In the 18th century, Sallye Hartley (1730-1799) was a British author and poet known for her works on education and female empowerment. Sallye Bingham (1786-1865) was an American philanthropist and abolitionist who was actively involved in the Underground Railroad, assisting escaped enslaved people in their journey to freedom.
In the 19th century, Sallye Holman (1818-1892) was a notable American educator and social reformer who advocated for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. She founded several schools and institutions for the education of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
While the name Sallye has historically been more common in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, it has also been used in other cultures and regions, albeit less frequently.
People
Sallye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sallye 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
Sallye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sallye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 349 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sallye 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 982,104 US residents.
Is Sallye a common name?
We classify Sallye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,067 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sallye most popular?
The single biggest year for Sallye was 1942, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sallye is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sallye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sallye 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.
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.