Sayre
From Middle English, meaning wooded hill or willow field.
Name Census estimates that about 189 living Americans carry the first name Sayre. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 51.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Sayre today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sayre births was 2007 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sayre. 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.
People living today
189
~ 1 in 1,813,515 Americans
Peak year
2007
17 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2021 SSA rank
#11,892
Tracked since 1986
Gender
Gender distribution for Sayre
Sayre is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 192 total registrations, 99 (51.6%) were male and 93 (48.4%) were female.
Sayre as a male name
- Ranked #11,892 in 2021
- 6 male births in 2021
- Peak: 2007 (10 births)
Sayre as a female name
- Ranked #17,227 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (9 births)
Popularity
Sayre: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sayre from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 67 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Sayre remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sayre 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 Sayre during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sayre
The given name Sayre has its origins in the Old English language, deriving from the word "sæ" which means "sea" or "ocean." It is believed to have originated in the early medieval period, around the 5th to 11th centuries, when the Anglo-Saxons inhabited Britain.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sayre can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landowners and their properties in England, commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxon population during the Norman conquest of England.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Sayre was primarily used in coastal regions of England, particularly in areas where seafaring and fishing were prominent occupations. It is possible that the name was initially given to individuals who lived near the sea or worked in maritime professions.
In the 13th century, a notable bearer of the name was Sayre de Quincy, an English nobleman and crusader who participated in the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land. He was born around 1170 and died in 1219.
Another historical figure with the name Sayre was Sayre Stafford, a 14th-century English knight and courtier who served under King Edward III. He was born around 1320 and participated in the Hundred Years' War against France.
During the Renaissance period, the name Sayre gained some prominence in literary circles. Sayre Barnfield, an English poet and playwright, was born in 1574 and is best known for his pastoral poetry and his tribute to Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, Sayre Fortescue was a prominent English jurist and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1689 to 1700. He was born in 1634 and played a significant role in establishing the principles of English common law.
Another notable bearer of the name was Sayre Pennington, an American Revolutionary War soldier and politician. He was born in 1736 and served as the 9th Governor of New Jersey from 1813 to 1815.
People
Sayre + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sayre 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
Sayre: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sayre?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 189 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sayre 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 1,813,515 US residents.
Is Sayre a common name?
We classify Sayre as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 192 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sayre most popular?
The single biggest year for Sayre was 2007, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sayre is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sayre a male name?
Yes, 51.6% of people registered as Sayre 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.
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.