Sagan
Masculine · “Deputy”
Sagan is given to both — 748 boys and 428 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Sagan is a surname turned first name, and the man it honors is not in doubt: Carl Sagan presented Cosmos in 1980 to one of the largest audiences a science program has ever had. The name's American rise begins after his death in 1996 and peaks in 2018.
How old is the name Sagan?
Sagan first appears in US birth records in 1987 — 38 years ago. The typical Sagan is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Sagan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sagan most popular?
Sagan peaked in 2018, reaching #2189 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,210 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From segan to Sagan
The story of Sagan
Carl Sagan taught at Cornell, worked on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager and Galileo missions, wrote the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager golden record, and in 1980 made Cosmos, which reached hundreds of millions of viewers. He died in 1996 at sixty-two. American birth records show Sagan essentially absent as a given name before 2000 and rising steadily since, peaking in 2018 — the delay is characteristic of names honoring a figure rather than following a fashion, and the release of a new Cosmos series in 2014 sits inside the climb. The Slovak cyclist Peter Sagan, world champion three times from 2015, has raised the surname's profile separately.
Meaningscholars disagree
Deputy, prefect; or a cooking pot
The Ashkenazi surname Sagan has two competing derivations. One takes it from the Hebrew segan, a deputy or prefect, used in the Second Temple period for the priest who assisted the high priest, and adopted as a surname by families claiming that descent. The other takes it from a Polish and Ukrainian word for a large cooking pot or cauldron, an occupational or nickname surname. Neither is settled, and different Sagan families may descend from either.
How the name formed
- segan
- Sagan
Related forms: סגן · Sagan
Pronouncing Sagan
SAY-gun
Two syllables, stress on the first, as Carl Sagan himself said it. The Polish and Slovak surname is closer to SAH-gan with a fuller first vowel, which is how the cyclist's name is said.
Nicknames for Sagan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1987
- Most boys named
- 201863 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2189reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −26.1%17 in 2025, from 23
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Sagan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- סגן in Hebrew — related form
- Sagan in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Sagans among us
people named Sagan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Sagan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Shant test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sagan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Shant climbed just as high around 1991, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Shant's path sketches the road Sagan is walking now.
Sagan sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Sagan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sagan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It honors a genuinely admirable figure and needs no explanation.
- Two syllables and five letters keep it simple.
- Sage works as a short form and is popular on its own.
- The surname's meaning is not settled and the two proposals are unrelated.
- It reads as a surname on every form.
- The two prominent bearers say the name differently.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Sagan
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sagans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Sagan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sagan in 2025?
- Sagan ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sagan?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Sagan — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sagan with classmates?
- Sagan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sagan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sagan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sagan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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