Humanverse

Sarabeth vs Sarai

American parents have registered 22,925 Sarais since 1880, against 1,300 Sarabeths. Sarai is still ahead, with 733 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sarabeth against Sarai, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sarabeth Sarai

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

Of the 74 years in which either name was published, Sarai for 67 years and Sarabeth for 7 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.

Side by side

  Sarabeth Sarai
Total US births 1,30022,925
Most in one year 100818
Babies in 2025 5733
Estimated living today 1,30023,000
Median age today 2915
Peak year 20062007
Best rank 1,988th girls398th girls
Rank in 2025 14,942nd424th
First recorded 19411953
Girls / boys 1,300 / 022,919 / 6

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 Sarabeths alive today are over 29; half the Sarais are over 15. That is 14 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 Sarai.