Saylor
Masculine · “sailor”
Saylor is given to both — 880 boys and 14,482 girls since 1880. See Saylor as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Saylor respells Sailor, and the word came from the French cingler by way of a rope-hauling crew — or possibly not.
How old is the name Saylor?
Saylor first appears in US birth records in 1917 — 108 years ago. The typical Saylor is a kid of about 6 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Saylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Saylor most popular?
Saylor peaked in 2023, reaching #1909 nationally. Today it ranks #2390, 481 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Seiler to Saylor
The story of Saylor
Seiler is a common German surname for a ropemaker — a trade essential to any port — and German immigrants to America had it respelled as Saylor and Sayler constantly. Separately, sailor is an English word. Saylor entered American given-name use for both sexes and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
sailor; ropemaker
Two routes. The English word sailor, from 'sail', an occupational term that displaced the older 'seaman'. Or the German Seiler, 'ropemaker', an occupational surname that reached America and was respelled. Both are genuine and neither dominates.
How the name formed
- Seiler
- Saylor
Related forms: Seiler · Sailor
Pronouncing Saylor
SAY-lur
Two syllables, stress on the first. Saylor and sailor are homophones.
Nicknames for Saylor
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
- 1917
- Most boys named
- 202382 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1909reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −12.3%57 in 2025, from 65
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.
Saylor in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Seiler in German — related form
- Sailor in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina.
Saylors among us
people named Saylor are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 29,966 born in 2025 was named Saylor
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Saylor
- #2390
- Saylor on the 2025 chart
- #831
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Saylor went to 57 boys in 2025, but Sailor 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 — 1,559 places above the chart.
- Saylor57
- Sailor40
About 1 boy in 17,609 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 29,966 for Saylor 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 Zak test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Saylor's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zak climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zak's path sketches the road Saylor is walking now.
Saylor 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 Saylor is headed
Saylor should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Saylor beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Saylor in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That German ropemakers' names became American Saylors is a genuinely good migration fact.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The occupational meanings are both concrete.
- It is a homophone of an ordinary English noun.
- The origin is split between English and German routes.
- It is used for both sexes in America.
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Saylor
Masculine · #2390 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Saylors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Saylor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Saylor?
- Saylor is the most-used spelling in US records — 57 of the 97 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Sailor.
- How popular is the name Saylor in 2025?
- Saylor ranks #2390 among US boy names in 2025, with 57 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Saylor?
- About 1 in every 29,966 US boys born in 2025 was named Saylor — 57 in all.
- Will my child share the name Saylor with classmates?
- Saylor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Saylor
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Quest#2390 · Jovanny#2390 · Ameen#2390 · Devante#2390 · Austyn#2390 · Deklan#2390 · Erwin#2390 · Blaize#2390
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Saylor? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Saylor and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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