Sarah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman".
Name Census estimates that about 856,869 living Americans carry the first name Sarah. It sits at #95 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sarah today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sarah births was 1982 (28,613 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Jeffrey (854,629).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sarah. 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 Sarah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Sarah is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 3,339 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
857K
~ 1 in 400 Americans
Peak year
1982
28,613 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2020 SSA rank
#95
Tracked since 1880
Census
Sarah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 874,127 people with the first name Sarah, which placed it at #35 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
National first-name rank
People counted
874K
874,127 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
289.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sarah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sarah is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Sarah 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 Sarah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.0% · 707,633
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 63,774
- Black or African American4.3% · 38,022
- Two or more races3.6% · 31,484
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 28,811
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4,403
Gender
Gender distribution for Sarah
Out of the 1,099,063 babies given the name Sarah 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.
Sarah as a male name
- Ranked #9,405 in 2020
- 8 male births in 2020
- Peak: 1989 (146 births)
Sarah as a female name
- Ranked #95 in 2024
- 2,697 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1982 (28,488 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sarah appears almost entirely female. Of the 874,128 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Sarah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sarah 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 273,767 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
Sarah 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 Sarah 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 | 31 | 14,715 | 14,746 |
| 1890s | 65 | 17,154 | 17,219 |
| 1900s | 43 | 17,342 | 17,385 |
| 1910s | 124 | 38,120 | 38,244 |
| 1920s | 225 | 46,768 | 46,993 |
| 1930s | 236 | 36,513 | 36,749 |
| 1940s | 150 | 39,977 | 40,127 |
| 1950s | 120 | 39,967 | 40,087 |
| 1960s | 149 | 43,916 | 44,065 |
| 1970s | 438 | 118,831 | 119,269 |
| 1980s | 1,120 | 272,647 | 273,767 |
| 1990s | 358 | 224,413 | 224,771 |
| 2000s | 226 | 124,524 | 124,750 |
| 2010s | 46 | 46,637 | 46,683 |
| 2020s | 8 | 14,200 | 14,208 |
Geography
Where Sarahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Sarah, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20,523 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sarah
The name Sarah has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, with its earliest known use dating back to ancient biblical times. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "sarah," which means "princess" or "noblewoman." It is believed to have first appeared in the Book of Genesis, where Sarah was the name of the wife of the patriarch Abraham.
In the biblical narrative, Sarah was a woman of great faith and courage, and her name has come to symbolize these virtues. The name Sarah appears frequently throughout the Old Testament, and it is also mentioned in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sarah can be found in the Book of Genesis, which is believed to have been written around the 6th or 5th century BCE. In this text, Sarah is described as the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac, one of the three patriarchs of the Abrahamic religions.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals who have borne the name Sarah. One of the most famous is Sarah Bernhardt, a French actress and cultural icon who lived from 1844 to 1923. She was widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her time and is often credited with helping to establish the modern concept of celebrity.
Another notable Sarah is Sarah Vaughan, an American jazz singer who lived from 1924 to 1990. She was a highly influential and innovative vocalist who helped to shape the sound of modern jazz and is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.
In the realm of politics, Sarah Palin, an American politician and commentator, has been a prominent figure in recent decades. She served as the Governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009 and was the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2008 election.
Sarah Josepha Hale, an American writer and editor who lived from 1788 to 1879, is also noteworthy. She is best known for her efforts in campaigning for the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States.
Finally, Sarah Breedlove, better known as Madam C.J. Walker, was an African American entrepreneur and philanthropist who lived from 1867 to 1919. She is widely regarded as one of the first self-made millionaires in the United States and is celebrated for her contributions to the development of hair care products and the promotion of economic empowerment for African American women.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sarah
People
Sarah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sarah 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
Sarah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sarah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 856,869 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sarah 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 400 US residents.
Is Sarah a common name?
We classify Sarah as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,099,063 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sarah most popular?
The single biggest year for Sarah was 1982, when 28,613 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sarah is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sarah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 874,127 people with the name Sarah, or 289.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35 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 Sarah 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 Sarah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sarah appears almost entirely female. Of the 874,128 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 Sarah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sarah is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (4.3%). 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 Sarah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sarah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.0% (707,633 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 Sarah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sarah a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Sarah 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 Sarah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sarah 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 Sarah 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 common is the name Sarah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Sarah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.