Sarah Smith
There are approximately 7,097 people named Sarah Smith living in the United States today. That makes this name combination rare, occurring at a rate of about 1 in 48,296 Americans.
This estimate combines SSA birth records for the first name Sarah with Census Bureau frequency data for the surname Smith. Below you will find a breakdown of both names, including popularity trends, gender data, and ancestry information.
Expected bearers
7,097
1 in 48,296
Named Sarah
857K
Alive today
Named Smith
2.8M
Alive today
US population
343M
Denominator
Estimated living: 857K
Rarity: Very Common
Gender: Female
Peak year: 1982
Average age: 38
Estimated bearers: 2.8M
Rarity: Very Common
Census rank: #1
Per 100K: 828.19
Top ancestry: White (70.9%)
First name trend
Sarah: popularity over time
Year-by-year SSA birth registrations for the first name Sarah. The peak year was 1982 with 28,613 births. The average person named Sarah today is 38 years old.
Babies born per year
Ethnicity
Ancestry of the Smith surname
Self-reported race and ethnicity breakdown for people with the surname Smith, from the 2010 US Census Bureau. The largest group is White at 70.9%.
- White70.9%
- Black or African American23.1%
- Hispanic or Latino2.4%
- Two or more races2.2%
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9%
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5%
Methodology
How we calculated this
The first name Sarah has a living-bearer frequency of 0.2500% of the US population, based on 856,869 estimated living Americans carrying this first name (from SSA birth records going back to 1880, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables).
The surname Smith appears at a rate of 828.19 per 100,000 residents in the 2010 Census Bureau surname file, which translates to a frequency of 0.8282%.
Multiplying these two independent frequencies against the current US population of 342,754,338 gives an expected count of approximately 7,097 people with the full name Sarah Smith. This assumes statistical independence between first and last names, which is a simplification but produces reasonable estimates for most combinations.
Related
Other people named Sarah
Related
Other people with the surname Smith
FAQ
Sarah Smith: questions and answers
How many people are named Sarah Smith?
We estimate approximately 7,097 people in the United States share the full name Sarah Smith. That works out to about 1 in 48,296 Americans. This is calculated by combining the first-name frequency (0.2500%) with the surname frequency (828.19 per 100K) against the current US population.
How rare is the name Sarah Smith?
We classify Sarah Smith as "Rare". About 1 in 48,296 Americans share this exact first and last name combination.
Is Sarah a male or female name?
Sarah is predominantly female. Out of 1,099,063 total SSA registrations, 0.3% were male and 99.7% were female. See the full Sarah profile for detailed gender data.
Where does this data come from?
First-name data comes from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files (1880 to 2024). Surname data comes from the 2010 US Census Bureau decennial surname tables. Living-bearer estimates use CDC actuarial life tables to adjust for mortality. Read the full methodology.