Humanverse

Sara vs Sarabeth

American parents have registered 437,441 Saras since 1880, against 1,300 Sarabeths. Sara is still ahead, with 1,568 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sara against Sarabeth, 1880 to 2025 0 3k 6k 9k 12k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sara Sarabeth

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Sara has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2006, when Sara had 4,419 and Sarabeth had 100.

Side by side

  Sara Sarabeth
Total US births 437,4411,300
Most in one year 11,391100
Babies in 2025 1,5685
Estimated living today 354,0001,300
Median age today 3929
Peak year 19812006
Best rank 26th girls1,988th girls
Rank in 2025 198th14,942nd
First recorded 18801941
Girls / boys 436,193 / 1,2481,300 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Saras alive today are over 39; half the Sarabeths are over 29. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sara and Sarabeth.