Sally
Masculine · “Pet form of Sarah”
Sally is given to girls far more often — 205,229 girls against 647 boys since 1880. See Sally as a girl name
Sally is Sarah said the English nursery way, with the r softened to an l, and it has been a full name in its own right for about three centuries. It has been a Bath teacake, a soul song, and the name of the first American woman in space.
How old is the name Sally?
Sally first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Sally alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 300 people named Sally are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sally most popular?
Sally peaked in 1937, reaching #1313 nationally. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Sarah to Sally
The story of Sally
Sally grew up in English as the everyday form of Sarah and was being given as a name in its own right by the eighteenth century. In Bath a rich, light teacake called a Sally Lunn has been sold since at least the late eighteenth century; the house that sells it tells of a Huguenot refugee baker of that name, but no record of her has been found, and the bun may simply have borrowed an ordinary girl's name. The most famous bearer is recent: in June 1983 the physicist Sally Ride flew aboard the shuttle Challenger and became the first American woman in space, and she later served on the boards that investigated both shuttle disasters.
Meaning
Pet form of Sarah, 'princess' in Hebrew
Sarah is Hebrew for 'princess' or 'noblewoman'. Sally came from it the same way Molly came from Mary and Dolly from Dorothy, with the r replaced by an l in the pet form.
How the name formed
- Sarah
- Sally
Related forms: Sarah · Sara · Sara · Sallie
Pronouncing Sally
SAL-ee
Rhymes with valley; the a is short.
Nicknames for Sally
Limited
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 193726 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1313reached in 1937
- Change vs 1991
- −16.7%5 in 1992, from 6
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.
Sally in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sarah in Hebrew — related form
- Sara in Spanish — related form
- Sara in Italian — related form
- Sallie in English — spelling variant
Sallys among us
people named Sally are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Sally sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Instantly familiar and spelled the way it sounds.
- An unbroken history in English stretching back to the eighteenth century.
- Rooted in Sarah, one of the oldest names in the Bible.
- Sally Ride gives it a modern bearer of real distinction.
- Sally is still often taken as a nickname, so people may assume a longer formal name, usually Sarah, stands behind it.
- 'Mustang Sally' and 'sally forth' are the phrases people reach for, and a Sally will hear both.
- The spelling is recorded occasionally for boys, but it is a girl's name in every tradition behind it, and a boy called Sally would face constant explanation.
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Sally
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Sallys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Sally are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sally in 2025?
- Sally is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Sally with classmates?
- Sally will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Sally? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sally and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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