Sellers
A masculine English surname meaning sellers or merchants.
Name Census estimates that about 17 living Americans carry the first name Sellers. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Sellers today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sellers births was 1917 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sellers. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Sellers. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
17
~ 1 in 20,162,020 Americans
Peak year
1917
6 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,000
Tracked since 1915
Census
Sellers in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 132 people with the first name Sellers, which placed it at #48,390 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
#48,390
National first-name rank
People counted
132
132 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sellers
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sellers is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (23.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Sellers 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 Sellers at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.4% · 89
- Black or African American23.5% · 31
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 2
- Two or more races1.5% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Sellers
Sellers leans heavily male at 84.2% of total registrations, but 6 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Sellers as a male name
- Ranked #14,000 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1917 (6 births)
Sellers as a female name
- Ranked #14,946 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sellers on both sides of the split. Of the 128 people counted with this name, 101 were male (78.9%) and 27 were female (21.1%).
Popularity
Sellers: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sellers from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 17 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Sellers remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sellers 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 Sellers 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 Sellers
The name Sellers is derived from the Old English word "sellan," which means "to sell" or "to give." It originated in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, which spanned from the 5th to the 11th century AD. The name was initially used as an occupational surname for merchants, traders, or salespeople.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sellers can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of land holdings and population in England compiled in 1086 under the orders of William the Conqueror. The Domesday Book mentions several individuals with the surname Sellers, indicating that the name was already in use by the late 11th century.
In the Middle Ages, the name Sellers was relatively common among tradespeople and merchants in England. As the use of surnames became more widespread, individuals working in sales or trade often adopted the surname Sellers to reflect their occupation.
One notable individual with the name Sellers was William Sellers, an English-born American engineer and industrialist who lived from 1824 to 1905. He was a pioneer in the development of precision tools and machinery and is credited with introducing the metric system of measurement to the United States.
Another famous Sellers was Peter Sellers, the renowned English comedic actor known for his versatile performances in films such as "The Pink Panther" series, "Dr. Strangelove," and "Being There." He was born in 1925 and passed away in 1980.
In religious texts, the name Sellers does not have a direct association or significance. However, the concept of selling and trading is mentioned in various religious scriptures, often in the context of parables or teachings about ethical business practices.
Over the centuries, the name Sellers has been used by individuals from various walks of life, including artists, writers, and politicians. For example, Coleman Sellers III, born in 1827, was an American inventor and entrepreneur best known for developing the first practical kinematoscope, a precursor to the modern motion picture camera.
It is worth noting that while the name Sellers originated as an occupational surname, it has also been adopted as a given name in some instances. However, its primary usage remains as a surname, particularly in English-speaking countries with a strong Anglo-Saxon heritage.
People
Sellers + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sellers 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
Sellers: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sellers?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sellers 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 20,162,020 US residents.
Is Sellers a common name?
We classify Sellers as "Very Rare". It ranks above 37.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 38 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sellers most popular?
The single biggest year for Sellers was 1917, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sellers is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sellers in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 132 people with the name Sellers, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,390 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 Sellers 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 Sellers?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sellers on both sides of the split. Of the 128 people counted with this name, 101 were male (78.9%) and 27 were female (21.1%). 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 Sellers?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sellers is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (23.5%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Sellers most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sellers in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.4% (89 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 Sellers in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sellers a male name?
Yes, 84.2% of people registered as Sellers 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 Sellers still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sellers 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 Sellers 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 Sellers as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.