Sara
A feminine Hebrew name meaning "princess" or "woman of high rank".
Name Census estimates that about 338,876 living Americans carry the first name Sara. It sits at #188 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sara today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sara births was 1982 (11,392 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sara. 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 Sara with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sara is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,248 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
339K
~ 1 in 1,011 Americans
Peak year
1982
11,392 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#188
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 384,262 people with the first name Sara, which placed it at #120 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
#120
National first-name rank
People counted
384K
384,262 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
127.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sara is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.2%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Sara 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 Sara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 284,800
- Hispanic or Latino17.2% · 65,938
- Two or more races3.0% · 11,376
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 10,707
- Black or African American2.5% · 9,782
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1,659
Gender
Gender distribution for Sara
Out of the 435,846 babies given the name Sara 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.
Sara as a male name
- Ranked #13,839 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (50 births)
Sara as a female name
- Ranked #188 in 2024
- 1,605 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1981 (11,358 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sara appears almost entirely female. Of the 384,257 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sara from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 105,119 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sara 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 Sara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 0 | 2,127 | 2,127 |
| 1890s | 0 | 3,119 | 3,119 |
| 1900s | 5 | 4,210 | 4,215 |
| 1910s | 23 | 15,409 | 15,432 |
| 1920s | 64 | 21,101 | 21,165 |
| 1930s | 105 | 18,261 | 18,366 |
| 1940s | 60 | 20,275 | 20,335 |
| 1950s | 35 | 20,491 | 20,526 |
| 1960s | 61 | 23,045 | 23,106 |
| 1970s | 202 | 56,960 | 57,162 |
| 1980s | 438 | 104,681 | 105,119 |
| 1990s | 150 | 72,170 | 72,320 |
| 2000s | 82 | 44,050 | 44,132 |
| 2010s | 12 | 20,723 | 20,735 |
| 2020s | 11 | 7,976 | 7,987 |
Geography
Where Saras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Sara, while Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,307 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sara
The name Sara has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, derived from the biblical name Sarah, which means "princess" or "noblewoman." It first appeared in the Old Testament book of Genesis, as the name of Abraham's wife and the matriarch of the Jewish people.
The name gained popularity during the early days of Christianity, as it was adopted by followers of the new religion. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sara can be found in the New Testament, referring to one of the daughters of Raguel, who married Tobias in the Book of Tobit.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Sara. In the 4th century, Sara of Byzantium was a Christian martyr who was executed for her faith during the reign of Emperor Licinius. Sara Theodora, born in 508 CE, was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and played a significant role in his reign.
During the Middle Ages, Sara was a popular name among Jewish communities across Europe. One of the earliest recorded Jewish women with the name was Sara Bat Tovim, a 12th-century Jewish scholar and poet from Catalonia.
In the Renaissance era, Sara Copia Sullam, born in 1592 in Venice, was a renowned Jewish scholar and poet who was admired for her literary works and her command of multiple languages.
Moving into the modern era, Sara Josepha Hale, born in 1788, was an American writer and activist who played a crucial role in advocating for the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States.
Another notable figure was Sara Teasdale, an American lyric poet born in 1884, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1918 for her collection "Love Songs."
These are just a few examples of the many remarkable individuals who have carried the name Sara throughout history, reflecting its enduring popularity and cultural significance across various societies and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sara
People
Sara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sara 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
Sara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 338,876 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sara 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 1,011 US residents.
Is Sara a common name?
We classify Sara as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 435,846 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sara most popular?
The single biggest year for Sara was 1982, when 11,392 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sara is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 384,262 people with the name Sara, or 127.23 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #120 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 Sara 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 Sara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sara appears almost entirely female. Of the 384,257 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Sara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sara is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.2%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Sara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (284,800 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 Sara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sara a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Sara 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 Sara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sara 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 Sara 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 Sara?
Find out how many Americans are named Sara on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.