Sigurd
A masculine Old Norse name meaning "victory guard" or "defender of victory".
Name Census estimates that about 304 living Americans carry the first name Sigurd. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sigurd today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sigurd births was 1916 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sigurd. 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 Sigurd with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
304
~ 1 in 1,127,481 Americans
Peak year
1916
31 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,208
Tracked since 1890
Census
Sigurd in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 410 people with the first name Sigurd, which placed it at #23,765 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
#23,765
National first-name rank
People counted
410
410 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sigurd
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sigurd is White at 90.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Sigurd 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 Sigurd at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.5% · 371
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 21
- Two or more races1.7% · 7
- Black or African American1.2% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Sigurd: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sigurd from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 167 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Sigurd remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sigurd 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 Sigurd during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sigurds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Minnesota, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Sigurd, while North Dakota, Illinois, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sigurd
Sigurd is a masculine given name of Old Norse origin, derived from the elements "sigr" meaning victory and "varðr" meaning guardian or defender. It was a popular name among the Vikings and Norse people, particularly in Scandinavia and Iceland, during the Viking Age, which lasted from the late 8th to the late 11th century.
The name Sigurd is closely associated with the legendary hero Sigurd the Volsung, who slays the dragon Fafnir in the Völsunga saga, one of the oldest and most renowned Norse sagas. This saga, along with other Old Norse literature such as the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, played a significant role in preserving and popularizing the name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sigurd can be found in the Old Norse Rune Stones, which date back to the 9th and 10th centuries. These stones were often used to commemorate the dead, and the name Sigurd appeared on several of them, indicating its widespread use during that time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Sigurd. In the 11th century, Sigurd Syr was a powerful Norwegian earl and one of the most prominent figures during the reign of King Olaf Haraldsson (also known as St. Olaf). Another notable figure was Sigurd Jorsalfare (1090-1130), a Norwegian king who participated in the Crusades and was one of the leaders of the Norwegian Crusade to the Holy Land in the early 12th century.
In the 13th century, Sigurd Ribbung was a Swedish nobleman and pretender to the Swedish throne, who led an uprising against King Erik Eriksson during the Swedish civil war of 1229-1234. In the 14th century, Sigurd Jonsson was a prominent Norwegian chieftain and one of the most powerful men in Norway during his time.
Sigurd Slembe (1115-1139) was a Norwegian pretender to the throne who fought against King Harald Gille and King Inge Haraldsson in the 12th century. He was known for his cunning and ruthlessness, and his life was the subject of several sagas and chronicles.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Sigurd, a name that has endured for centuries and continues to be used today, particularly in Scandinavian countries and among those with Norse heritage.
People
Sigurd + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sigurd 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
Sigurd: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sigurd?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 304 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sigurd 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 1,127,481 US residents.
Is Sigurd a common name?
We classify Sigurd as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 853 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sigurd most popular?
The single biggest year for Sigurd was 1916, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sigurd is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sigurd in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 410 people with the name Sigurd, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,765 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 Sigurd 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 Sigurd?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sigurd appears almost entirely male. Of the 405 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Sigurd?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sigurd is White at 90.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.1%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Sigurd most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sigurd in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.5% (371 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 Sigurd in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sigurd a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sigurd 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 Sigurd still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sigurd 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 Sigurd 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 the name Sigurd?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.