Sailor
Masculine · “one who sails”
Sailor is given to both — 687 boys and 3,603 girls since 1880. See Sailor as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Sailor is a newer word than it sounds. English called them seamen and mariners for centuries; sailor only arrived in the sixteenth century, built plainly from the sail, and it displaced the older words within a few generations.
How old is the name Sailor?
Sailor first appears in US birth records in 1997 — 28 years ago. The typical Sailor is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Sailor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sailor most popular?
Sailor peaked in 2016, reaching #2551 nationally. Today it ranks #3036, 485 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From segl to Sailor
The story of Sailor
The older English words for the trade — seaman, shipman, mariner — were all in use when sailor appeared, and the newcomer won because it was built from the most visible thing about the work. As a given name it is very recent, and it belongs to a small group of occupational words used as names — Sailor, Ranger, Hunter, Marshall, Mason — several of which have crossed to daughters as well. It is given to both, with no strong lean either way.
Meaning
one who sails
English sail, from Old English segl, with the -or ending that makes an agent noun. The word is recorded from the fifteenth century and became the usual English term for the job over the following two hundred years, pushing aside seaman and mariner in ordinary speech. The reading is exact and needs no explaining.
How the name formed
- segl
- sailor
Pronouncing Sailor
SAY-ler
Two syllables, stress on the first, said exactly as the ordinary word. It is a homophone for the surname Saylor, which is a different word from a different source.
Nicknames for Sailor
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
- 1997
- Most boys named
- 202250 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2551reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%40 in 2025, from 48
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.
Sailor in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Texas, California.
Sailors among us
people named Sailor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 42,702 born in 2025 was named Sailor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Sailor
- #3036
- Sailor on the 2025 chart
- #831
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Sailor went to 40 boys in 2025, but Saylor is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 97, which makes it the 831st most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,205 places above the chart.
- Saylor57
- Sailor40
About 1 boy in 17,609 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 42,702 for Sailor itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kedar test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Sailor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kedar climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kedar's path sketches the road Sailor is walking now.
Sailor 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
Where Sailor is headed
Sailor should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Sailor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Sailor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Said and spelled correctly by every English speaker without being told.
- Used for both sexes, so it carries no strong expectation either way.
- The meaning is concrete and immediately understood by anyone.
- It is an occupation applied to a child who has not chosen one.
- Sailor and Saylor are homophones from different sources and get confused in writing.
- Word-names of this kind date visibly to the period that made them fashionable.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Sailor
Masculine · #3036 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Sailors 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 Sailor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Sailor?
- Sailor is one of 2 recorded spellings. Saylor is the more common one — 57 births in 2025 against 40 for Sailor.
- How popular is the name Sailor in 2025?
- Sailor ranks #3036 among US boy names in 2025, with 40 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Sailor?
- About 1 in every 42,702 US boys born in 2025 was named Sailor — 40 in all.
- Will my child share the name Sailor with classmates?
- Sailor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Sailor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Loren#3036 · Williams#3036 · Collier#3036 · Amadou#3036 · Kavion#3036 · Sheppard#3036 · Koi#3036 · Claude#3036
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sailor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sailor and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
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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