Find out how popular the last name Sager is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Sager.

Sager, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Sager surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Sager in America

Sager is the 3390th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Sager surname appeared 10,541 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 4 people would have the surname Sager.

We can also compare 2010 data for Sager to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Sager

The surname Sager is of German origin, derived from the Old German word "sager," meaning a person who tells stories or speaks eloquently. It first emerged in the late Middle Ages, around the 14th century, in the regions of Bavaria and Saxony.

The earliest recorded instance of the name Sager can be found in the Würzburg Codex, a medieval manuscript dating back to 1368, where a certain Hans Sager is mentioned as a scribe and storyteller in the court of the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg.

In the 15th century, the name Sager appears in various town records and tax rolls across southern Germany, suggesting that the name had spread and become more common among the general population.

One notable bearer of the name was Johann Sager (1495-1564), a Lutheran theologian and reformer from Nuremberg, who played a significant role in the Reformation movement in the Holy Roman Empire.

Another historical figure with the surname Sager was Katharina Sager (1535-1594), a German midwife and author from Augsburg, who wrote one of the earliest known treatises on midwifery and childbirth in the German language.

In the 17th century, the name Sager appears in several records from the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany, where it may have originated from the town of Sagerbach or Sägermühle.

One of the earliest recorded immigrants to North America with the surname Sager was Hans Sager, who arrived in Pennsylvania from the Palatinate region in 1738 and settled in the German immigrant community of Germantown.

Another prominent bearer of the name was the Swiss-born writer and philosopher Johann Jakob Sager (1705-1776), who was a leading figure in the German Enlightenment and a proponent of religious tolerance and freedom of thought.

In the 19th century, the surname Sager was borne by several notable individuals, including the American explorer and frontiersman John Sager (1804-1883), who led wagon trains along the Oregon Trail, and the German-American educator and author Carl Sager (1835-1898), who founded the Milwaukee Normal School and was a pioneer in teacher education.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Sager

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Sager.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Sager was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Sager has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Sager was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Sager, please contact us.

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