Sergei
A masculine Russian name derived from the Latin Sergius, meaning "attendant" or "servant".
Name Census estimates that about 339 living Americans carry the first name Sergei. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sergei today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sergei births was 1998 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sergei. 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
339
~ 1 in 1,011,075 Americans
Peak year
1998
16 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,544
Tracked since 1925
Popularity
Sergei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sergei from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 86 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sergei 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 Sergei 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 Sergei
The given name Sergei has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the Roman name Sergius. The name Sergius itself is believed to have originated from the Latin word "serrare," meaning "to guard" or "to protect."
In ancient Rome, the name Sergius was a prominent patrician family name, and several notable individuals bore this name throughout Roman history. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sergei can be found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Roman consul named Sergius Fidenas in the 5th century BC.
As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the name Sergius gained popularity among early Christian communities. In the New Testament, there is a reference to a Roman proconsul named Sergius Paulus, who is said to have converted to Christianity after witnessing a miracle performed by the apostle Paul.
The name Sergei gained widespread use in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and other Slavic countries, where it was adapted from the Latin Sergius to its Slavic form, Sergei. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sergei in Russian history is the 11th-century Grand Prince of Kiev, Sergei Radonezhsky (1314-1392), who is revered as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Throughout Russian history, several notable figures bore the name Sergei, including Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), the renowned Russian composer and pianist; Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), the pioneering Soviet filmmaker; and Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), another celebrated Russian composer.
Other famous individuals named Sergei include Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), the Russian art critic and impresario who founded the Ballets Russes; Sergei Korolev (1907-1966), the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race; and Sergei Bubka (born 1963), the Ukrainian pole vaulter and former world record holder.
The name Sergei has also been borne by several Russian monarchs and members of the imperial Romanov dynasty, including Tsar Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905), the fifth child of Alexander II, and Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich (1869-1918), who was executed during the Russian Revolution.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sergei
People
Sergei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sergei 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
Sergei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sergei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 339 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sergei 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 1,011,075 US residents.
Is Sergei a common name?
We classify Sergei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 371 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sergei most popular?
The single biggest year for Sergei was 1998, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sergei is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Sergei a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sergei 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.