How common is the name Sarah?

874,128 people in the United States have the first name Sarah, about 1 in 346. It ranks #35 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

SARAH

#35

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
874,128
About
1 in 346
This common or more
17.1%
Who bears it

Of the 874,128 people named Sarah, 81% reported their origin as White, 7.3% as Hispanic or Latino and 4.3% as Black. Virtually all are female (99.9%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Sarah peaked in 1982, when 28,608 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1982
Births that year
28,608
In 2025*
2,710 ▼91%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 1,101,838 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Sarah by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1980s, when it ranked #19. The largest share of babies named Sarah, 37.5%, were born between 1981 and 1996, as millennials.

1880s#3114,746
1890s#4417,219
1900s#5817,385
1910s#8538,244
1920s#10146,994
1930s#11736,749
1940s#14740,127
1950s#19940,086
1960s#17544,062
1970s#48119,261
1980s#19273,757
1990s#21224,781
2000s#41124,771
2010s#13846,703
2020s#23116,953
Before 19013.1%
Greatest Generation 1901–278.4%
Silent Generation 1928–456.2%
Baby boom 1946–647.2%
Generation X 1965–8015.2%
Millennials 1981–9637.5%
Generation Z 1997–1218.3%
2013 and later4.2%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Sarah is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Sarah has been most common in Alaska (1.8×), New Hampshire (1.7×), and Vermont (1.5×), and least common in New York (0.82×).

1,049,446 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Sarah

#33 Karen · 882,576#34 Ryan · 874,269#36 Lisa · 864,260#37 Jacob · 805,730

Spelled almost the same

8 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Sarah, most common first.

#120 Sara · 384,257#1,705 Sarai · 18,137#3,134 Sarahi · 6,994#3,275 Sariah · 6,512#6,609 Saray · 2,408#10,783 Sarrah · 1,219#14,312 Sarahy · 826#22,829 Sarae · 433

Also a last name

As a last name, Sarah ranks #31,754 of 156,621, with 780 people. See Sarah as a last name

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