Signe
Feminine · “new victory”
Sigr is the Norse word for victory, and it is the front half of a whole shelf of names: Sigurd, Sigmund, Sigrid, Sigfrid, Signe. Norse naming was a small set of good words recombined, and a family would pass one element down rather than a whole name.
How old is the name Signe?
Signe first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Signe alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 1,500 people named Signe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Signe most popular?
Signe peaked in 1892, reaching #498 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 10,419 places below that high. See the whole 1892 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From sigr to Signe
The story of Signe
Signy is one of the oldest names in the Norse material and it belongs to a very dark story. In the Volsunga saga she is Sigmund's twin, married against her will to the king who kills their father, and everything she does afterwards is aimed at revenge. The saga is not squeamish about what that costs her. The name survived the story and stayed in ordinary Scandinavian use, and Signe is what a thousand years of Danish and Norwegian speech made of it. It reached American records with the Scandinavian migration of the late nineteenth century and has stayed strongest where those families settled.
Meaning
new victory
Old Norse Signy: sigr, victory, with ny, new. Norse names were built from two elements that did not have to make an obvious phrase together — the point was that each half connected the child to a relative who carried it. Signe is the modern Danish, Norwegian and Swedish form.
How the name formed
- sigr
- Signy
- Signe
Related forms: Signe · Signe · Signe · Signy
Pronouncing Signe
SIG-nuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. The final e is sounded — it is the whole second syllable, not a silent English ending. Swedish gives it a fuller vowel, closer to SIG-neh.
Nicknames for Signe
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
- 1884
- Most girls named
- 191445 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #498reached in 1892
- Change vs 2022
- −52.9%8 in 2025, from 17
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.
Signe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Signe in Danish — same name
- Signe in Norwegian — same name
- Signe in Swedish — same name
- Signy in Icelandic — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Signes among us
people named Signe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Signe
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Signe 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
Signe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Signe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Norse meaning with both elements traceable to ordinary words.
- It is a completely current name in Denmark, Norway and Sweden rather than a revival.
- Two syllables and five letters, with nothing hard in either.
- English readers will silence the final e and produce one syllable, which is a different name.
- It is close enough to Sydney and Cygne to be misheard as either.
- It is strongly represented among older generations of Scandinavian-American families.
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What they receive
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Signe
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Signes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Signe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Signe in 2025?
- Signe ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Signe?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Signe — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Signe with classmates?
- Signe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Signe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Signe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Signe and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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