Humanverse

Sarah vs Sarahy

American parents have registered 1,101,838 Sarahs since 1880, against 947 Sarahys. Sarah is still ahead, with 2,710 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Sarah Sarahy

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 2012, when Sarah had 5,213 and Sarahy had 44.

Side by side

  Sarah Sarahy
Total US births 1,101,838947
Most in one year 28,60853
Babies in 2025 2,71011
Estimated living today 889,000940
Median age today 3719
Peak year 19822008
Best rank 4th girls3,158th girls
Rank in 2025 90th8,860th
First recorded 18801989
Girls / boys 1,098,498 / 3,340947 / 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 Sarahs alive today are over 37; half the Sarahys are over 19. That is 18 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: Sarah and Sarahy.