Sandford
A masculine name derived from Old English words meaning "sandy ford" or "sandy river crossing".
Name Census estimates that about 208 living Americans carry the first name Sandford. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sandford today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sandford births was 1947 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sandford. 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 Sandford is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Sandfords were born before 1964.
People living today
208
~ 1 in 1,647,857 Americans
Peak year
1947
19 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1972 SSA rank
#4,364
Tracked since 1912
Census
Sandford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 222 people with the first name Sandford, which placed it at #35,960 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
#35,960
National first-name rank
People counted
222
222 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sandford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sandford is White at 74.8%. The next largest groups are Black (18.9%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Sandford 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 Sandford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.8% · 166
- Black or African American18.9% · 42
- Two or more races4.1% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Sandford: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sandford from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 96 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
Sandford 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 Sandford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sandfords live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sandford
The name Sandford is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "sand" and "ford," which together mean a sandy ford or a crossing over a sandy area. This name likely originated during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century.
The first recorded use of the name Sandford can be traced back to the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Sanford" and "Samford," indicating the existence of places with sandy fords or crossings.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Sandford was Sir Ralph de Sandford, a 13th-century knight who served under King Henry III of England. He is mentioned in historical records from the year 1235 as holding lands in Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named John Sandford gained recognition as a renowned architect and master mason. He is credited with the design and construction of several significant religious buildings, including the nave of the York Minster cathedral, which he worked on from 1361 to 1370.
During the 16th century, Sir Thomas Sandford (1512-1563) was a prominent English statesman and Member of Parliament. He served as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Queen Mary I and played a significant role in the religious conflicts of the Reformation period.
In the realm of literature, the name Sandford is associated with the 18th-century English writer and poet Anna Seward, who was born Anna Sandford in 1742. She gained fame as a writer and literary critic, and her works were highly regarded during her lifetime.
Another notable individual with the name Sandford was Sir Daniel Keyte Sandford (1798-1838), a British lawyer, judge, and professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow. He made significant contributions to the field of classical studies and was renowned for his scholarship.
These examples illustrate the longstanding presence of the name Sandford throughout English history, spanning various fields and professions, from nobility and architecture to literature and academia.
People
Sandford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sandford 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
Sandford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sandford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sandford 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 1,647,857 US residents.
Is Sandford a common name?
We classify Sandford as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 421 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sandford most popular?
The single biggest year for Sandford was 1947, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sandford is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sandford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 222 people with the name Sandford, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,960 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 Sandford 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 Sandford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sandford leans strongly male. 223 people counted with this name were male (97.4%), compared with 6 female bearers (2.6%). 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 Sandford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sandford is White at 74.8%. The next largest groups are Black (18.9%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Sandford most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sandford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.8% (166 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 Sandford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sandford a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sandford in the SSA data are male. 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 Sandford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sandford 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 Sandford 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 are named Sandford?
See how many people have the name Sandford on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.