Humanverse

Sarabeth vs Sarah

American parents have registered 1,101,838 Sarahs since 1880, against 1,300 Sarabeths. Sarah is still ahead, with 2,710 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sarabeth against Sarah, 1880 to 2025 0 8k 16k 24k 32k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sarabeth Sarah

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

Sarah 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 Sarabeth had 100 and Sarah had 11,178.

Side by side

  Sarabeth Sarah
Total US births 1,3001,101,838
Most in one year 10028,608
Babies in 2025 52,710
Estimated living today 1,300889,000
Median age today 2937
Peak year 20061982
Best rank 1,988th girls4th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd90th
First recorded 19411880
Girls / boys 1,300 / 01,098,498 / 3,340

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 Sarahs alive today are over 37; half the Sarabeths are over 29. That is 8 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: Sarabeth and Sarah.