How popular is the baby name Sara in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Sara.

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Popularity of the baby name Sara


Posts that mention the name Sara

Popular baby names in Norway, 2018

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

According to Statistics Norway, the most popular baby names in Norway in 2018 were Emma and Lucas/Lukas.

Here are Norway’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names (“Jentenavn”)
1. Emma, 420 baby girls
2. Nora/Norah, 361
3. Olivia, 324
4. Sara/Sahra/Sarah/Zara, 313
5. Emilie, 303
6. Leah/Lea, 299
7. Sofie/Sophie, 296
8. Ella, 291
9. Amalie, 286
10. Maja/Maia/Maya, 284

Boy Names (“Guttenavn”)
1. Lucas/Lukas, 419 baby boys
2. Filip/Fillip/Philip/Phillip, 414
3. Oliver, 403
4. Oskar/Oscar, 382
5. Emil, 378
6. Jakob/Jacob, 375
7. Noah/Noa, 351
8. Aksel/Axel, 332
9. Henrik, 328
10. Elias, 307

In the girls’ top 10, Leah/Lea and Amalie replaced Sofia/Sophia and Ingrid/Ingerid/Ingri.

In the boys’ top 10, Aksel/Axel and Henrik replaced William and Isak/Isaac/Isac.

In the capital city of Oslo, the top names were Mohammad and Alma.

In the county of Oppland, literature name Tiril is back on top.

And finally, in 2017, the top names in the country were Sofie/Sophie and Jakob/Jacob.

Sources: Navn – SSB, These were the most popular names in 2018

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)

Popular baby names in the Netherlands, 2018

Flag of the Netherlands
Flag of the Netherlands

According to the Netherlands’ Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), the most popular baby names in the country in 2018 were Julia and Lucas.

Here are the Netherlands’ top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names (“Meisjesnamen”)
1. Julia, 797 baby girls
2. Emma, 704
3. Sophie, 677
4. Tess, 669
5. Zoë, 659
6. Mila, 632
7. Anna, 550
8. Sara, 541
9. Eva, 530
10. Noor & Nora, 516 each (tie)

Boy Names (“Jongensnamen”)
1. Lucas, 681 baby boys
2. Levi, 641
3. Finn, 634
4. Sem, 633
5. Noah, 624
6. Daan, 619
7. Luuk, 596
8. Bram, 571
9. Mees, 568
10. Milan, 558

In the girls’ top 10, Noor and Nora replaced Evi.

In the boys’ top 10, Mees (a diminutive form of Bartholomeus) replaced Jesse.

In 2017, the top two names were Emma and Noah.

Sources: De populairste meisjesnamen van 2018, De populairste jongensnamen van 2018

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Netherlands (public domain)

Classics on the decline: Rebecca, Carol, Susan

girl names falling out of fashion

In last week’s “lowest ever” boy names post, I mentioned that reader Caitlin had shared her research on downward-trending baby names with me recently. While many girl names hit relative lows in 2017, for instance…

  • Sarah, now ranked 62nd — lowest ranking since 1970.
  • Rachel, now ranked 195th — lowest ranking since 1960.
  • Melissa, now ranked 273rd — lowest ranking since 1949.

…a couple of the names on her list, Rebecca and Catherine, hit their “lowest ever” rankings last year. (Plus there was Katherine, a borderline case of a lowest-ever tie.)

So I set out to find other “lowest ever” girl names.

Many of the names I checked (like Clare, Lea, and Bridget) hit a low in 2017, but it wasn’t their all-time low. Many others (like Pauline, Sara, and Mary) hit a low recently, but not as recently as 2017. Still others (like Yvonne) had to be disqualified because, even though they hit their lowest ranking on record in 2017, they didn’t appear in the data for all 138 years (1880-2017)…an issue I didn’t encounter with any of the boy names.

In the end, I was able to add a dozen thirteen names to the list:

  • Ann. Ranked 1,023rd in 2017; peak was 28th in the 1930s.
  • Barbara. Ranked 908th in 2017; peak was 2nd in the 1930s/1940s.
  • Carol. Ranked 1,814th in 2017; peak was 4th in the 1940s.
  • Catherine. Ranked 198th in 2017; peak was 18th in the 1910s.
  • Celia. Ranked 857th in 2017; peak was 141st in the 1880s.
  • Cynthia. Ranked 637th in 2017; peak was 7th in the 1950s.
  • Elisabeth. Ranked 775th in 2017; peak was 286th in the 2000s.
  • Katherine. Ranked 105th in 2017 + 1938; peak 25th in the 1990s.
  • Kathleen. Ranked 871st in 2017; peak was 9th in the 1940s. (Late addition–thanks Kelly!)
  • Linda. Ranked 708th in 2017; peak was 1st in 1940s/1950s.
  • Priscilla. Ranked 527th in 2017; peak was 127th in the 1940s.
  • Rebecca. Ranked 216th in 2017; peak was 10th in the 1970s.
  • Rosa. Ranked 672nd in 2017; peak was 52nd in the 1880s.
  • Susan. Ranked 963rd in 2017; peak was 2nd in the 1950s/1960s.
  • Teresa. Ranked 720th in 2017; peak was 18th in the 1960s.
  • Tressa. Ranked 9242nd in 2017; peak was 761st in the 1960s.

That makes 15 (or 16, if you count Katherine). I certainly could have missed a few, though, so if you can think of a good candidate, please let me know in the comments and I’ll take a look.

Where did the baby name Sierra come from in 1940?

Gene Autry singing "Sierra Sue"
Singing “Sierra Sue”

Back in 1940, the baby name Sierra debuted in the U.S. baby name data rather impressively. It was the top newbie name of the year, in fact.

  • 1942: 13 baby girls named Sierra
  • 1941: 24 baby girls named Sierra
  • 1940: 32 baby girls named Sierra [debut]
  • 1939: unlisted
  • 1938: unlisted

What was behind the debut?

“Sierra Sue,” a song that was a #1 hit in 1940 for Bing Crosby. A version by The Glenn Miller Orchestra also charted the same year.

The song was actually an updated version of an older song written by Joseph B. Carey (a “blind San Francisco organist”) in 1916. Carey died in 1930, and in 1939 the Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. sheet music company secured the rights to the song from Carey’s widow. The song “was probably revived because of the popularity of other western-style songs in the late ’30s.”

And, yes, a large number of the babies named Sierra in 1940 also had the middle name “Sue.” :) Here’s a Sierra Sue who was born in Kansas in 1940.

The Spanish word sierra, which refers to a mountain range, can be traced back to the Latin word serra, meaning “saw.”

In November of the next year, a movie called Sierra Sue starring Gene Autry was released. Here’s the scene in which Gene sings the title song:

Decades later, in 1985, usage of the name began to rise rapidly thanks to soap opera character Sierra Estaban from As the World Turns. Sierra was a top-100 name from 1993 to 2004, peaking in 1999 at 49th (just below Jordan, just above Sara).

Do you like the name Sierra?

Sources: