Sara
Masculine · “Princess”
Sara is given to girls far more often — 436,193 girls against 1,248 boys since 1880. See Sara as a girl name
Sara without the h is the older spelling in most of Europe. Greek and Latin wrote the name that way and passed it to every western language; the h at the end is a mark from Hebrew transliteration that English adopted and then treated as standard. Both forms are correct and one of them has a longer European history.
How old is the name Sara?
Sara first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Sara alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 1,000 people named Sara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Sara most popular?
Sara peaked in 1908, reaching #1373 nationally. See the whole 1908 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Sarai to Sara
The story of Sara
She is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded. A hundred and twenty-seven years, the text says, and then a whole chapter about her husband buying a field with a cave in it to bury her, negotiating in public with the local landowners and insisting on paying full price so that nobody could later say the ground was a gift. It is the most detailed property transaction in the book, and it exists because of a burial. The Greek and Latin translators wrote her name without the final letter, because neither language had a use for it at the end of a word, and every western European language inherited that. English restored the h from Hebrew during the Reformation, when translators went back to the original texts, and both spellings have been in use ever since.
Meaning
Princess, noblewoman
The Hebrew is the feminine of a word for a ruler or chief, and the text itself makes a point of the change from an earlier form of the name at the moment God promises her a son. The reading is not in dispute, which is unusual for a name this old, and neither spelling alters it.
How the name formed
- Sarai
- Sarah
- Sara
Related forms: Sara · Sara · Sara · Sara · Sarah
Pronouncing Sara
SAIR-uh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Most of Europe says SAH-rah with a fuller first vowel, and that pronunciation is common in the United States too; both are current and the spelling supports either.
Nicknames for Sara
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
- 1908
- Most boys named
- 198950 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1373reached in 1908
- Change vs 2014
- −28.6%5 in 2024, from 7
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.
Sara in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Sara in Italian — same name
- Sara in Spanish — same name
- Sara in German — same name
- Sara in Polish — same name
- Sarah in Arabic — same name
Saras among us
people named Sara 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
Sara 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
- Spelled identically in Italian, Spanish, German, Polish and Arabic, and understood everywhere.
- Four letters, no silent ones, and nothing that can be misread once the vowel is settled.
- The name has been in continuous use for as long as there are records of names at all.
- Two live pronunciations in America, and families with a European connection may want the other one.
- The h spelling is commoner in English-speaking countries and will be added by strangers.
- The record carries this spelling for boys in small numbers, so it is not an absolute signal.
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Sara
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Saras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Sara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Sara in 2025?
- Sara is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Sara with classmates?
- Sara 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 Sara? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Sara and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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