Saint
Masculine · Latin roots · “Holy”
Saint is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,288 boys against 188 girls since 1880.
Saint comes straight from the Latin sanctus, "holy," the word Roman Christians used for someone set apart — and it reached English through Old French, the same route that gave us places like St. Ives and surnames like St. Clair. One syllable, one clean vowel, and no one has to ask how to spell it. It has been on the American record since the end of the nineteenth century, quietly, long before the current wave of word names picked it up.
How old is the name Saint?
Saint first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. Saint is overwhelmingly a brand-new baby name right now — most Saints are still in diapers. About 6,900 people named Saint are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Saint most popular?
Saint peaked in 2025, reaching #267 nationally. Today it ranks #267, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Saint appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From sancire (Latin) to Saint
The story of Saint
The root is the Latin verb sancire, to make sacred; its participle sanctus was used in the early Church for the holy dead, and Old French wore it down to saint. Middle English borrowed it whole, and it settled into English mostly as a title and as an element in place names and surnames — St. John, St. Clair, Sinclair. Its life as a first name is far newer: it belongs with the modern American set of aspirational word names, and it gained visible momentum when Kanye West and Kim Kardashian gave it to their son in the mid-2010s. Romance languages kept the same word closer to the Latin, and there Santo and Santos have long served as real given names.
Meaning
Holy, consecrated
From Latin sanctus, the past participle of sancire, "to consecrate." In English the word became the title placed before a canonized person's name.
How the name formed
- sancireLatin
- sanctus
- saintOld French
- seintMiddle English
- Saint
Related forms: Santos · Santo · Santo · Sanctus · Saint · San
Pronouncing Saint
SAYNT
Exactly like the English word. One syllable, no regional variation to speak of.
Nicknames for Saint
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
- 1896
- Most boys named
- 20251,286 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #267reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +21.2%1,286 in 2025, from 1,061
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.
Saint in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Santos in Spanish — related form
- Santo in Italian — related form
- Santo in Portuguese — related form
- Sanctus in Latin — same name
- Saint in French — same name
- San in Spanish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Saints among us
people named Saint are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,328 born in 2025 was named Saint
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 Alfredo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Saint's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alfredo climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alfredo's path sketches the road Saint is walking now.
Saint is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Saint is headed
Saint is on a steep climb — if the curve holds, 2030 could see around 64% more babies given the name than today.
Medium 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.
Saint beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Saint in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelling and pronunciation are already known to every English speaker — nothing to repeat, correct or dictate over the phone.
- A single syllable, which sits easily in front of long or multi-syllable surnames.
- The root travels: Santo, Santos and San are recognizable across Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
- A word with an unbroken documented history from Latin through Old French into English.
- It is an explicitly religious word, and it announces itself as one. In some families that is the point; in others it may invite more comment at introductions than a parent expects.
- The "he's no saint" joke is easy and will get made, in school and later. Most bearers grow a shrug for it, but it is worth knowing it is coming.
- Almost everyone carrying it is a small child, and the name is climbing quickly. It will feel distinctly of this moment for a long while, and it may be noticeably less rare by the time your child reaches school.
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What they receive
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Saint
Masculine · Latin roots · #267 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Saints are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,900 people named Saint are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Saint in 2025?
- Saint ranks #267 among US boy names in 2025, with 1,286 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Saint?
- About 1 in every 1,328 US boys born in 2025 was named Saint — 1,286 in all.
- Will my child share the name Saint with classmates?
- Saint will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Saint
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bowen#266 · Cyrus#268 · Bodhi#265 · Koa#269 · Kayson#264 · Karter#270 · Ismael#263 · Steven#271
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Saint? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Saint and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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