Sedale
Of unknown origin and meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 104 living Americans carry the first name Sedale. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sedale today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sedale births was 1986 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sedale. 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
104
~ 1 in 3,295,715 Americans
Peak year
1986
28 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
1996 SSA rank
#10,276
Tracked since 1985
Census
Sedale in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 117 people with the first name Sedale, which placed it at #50,838 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
#50,838
National first-name rank
People counted
117
117 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sedale
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sedale is Black at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.0%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Sedale 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 Sedale at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American70.9% · 83
- Hispanic or Latino12.0% · 14
- Two or more races8.5% · 10
- White6.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 1
Popularity
Sedale: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sedale from the 1980s through to the 1990s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 66 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Sedale remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sedale 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 Sedale during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sedales live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sedale
The name Sedale is of obscure origins, with no definitive source or meaning that can be accurately traced. Some scholars speculate it may have roots in ancient Persian or Sanskrit languages, but there is no concrete evidence to support this claim.
One theory suggests that Sedale could be a variation of the Hebrew name "Shedal," which means "to spread out" or "to extend." However, this connection is tenuous at best and lacks historical documentation.
Throughout recorded history, there are very few notable individuals who bore the name Sedale. One of the earliest mentions comes from the 12th century, where a monk named Sedale is referenced in a medieval manuscript from a monastery in northern France. Unfortunately, no further details about this individual have been preserved.
In the 16th century, a Dutch navigator named Sedale Jansen is mentioned in a few maritime logs, having undertaken voyages to the East Indies. His exact birth and death dates are unknown, but he is believed to have lived between 1520 and 1580.
Another historical figure with the name Sedale is a Scottish noble from the 17th century. Sir Sedale MacKenzie was a prominent landowner and military leader who fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was born in 1618 and died in 1678.
Moving into the 19th century, there is a record of a French painter named Sedale Durand, who was active in the Romantic movement. His works were exhibited in the Paris Salons between 1830 and 1855, but little else is known about his life or the specific years of his birth and death.
Finally, in the early 20th century, an American author and journalist named Sedale Watkins gained some recognition for his investigative reporting on social issues. He was born in 1892 and died in 1962, publishing several books and articles during his career.
Beyond these few scattered references, the name Sedale remains an enigmatic and rarely used moniker throughout history, with no clear cultural or linguistic origins that can be definitively established.
People
Sedale + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sedale 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
Sedale: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sedale?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 104 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sedale 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 3,295,715 US residents.
Is Sedale a common name?
We classify Sedale as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sedale most popular?
The single biggest year for Sedale was 1986, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sedale is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sedale in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 117 people with the name Sedale, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #50,838 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 Sedale 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 Sedale?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sedale appears almost entirely male. Of the 118 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Sedale?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sedale is Black at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (12.0%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Sedale most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sedale in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (83 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 Sedale in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sedale a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sedale 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 Sedale still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sedale 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 Sedale 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 have Sedale as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.