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 Italy, 2015

Flag of Italy
Flag of Italy

A few weeks ago, Italy finally released baby name rankings for 2015. According to the data from Istat (Istituto nazionale di statistica), the most popular baby names in the country last year were Sofia and Francesco.

Here are Italy’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sofia, 7,191 baby girls
2. Aurora, 6,687
3. Giulia, 6,222
4. Giorgia, 4,099
5. Alice, 3,845
6. Martina, 3,743
7. Emma, 3,690
8. Greta, 3,676
9. Chiara, 3,516
10. Anna, 3,322		1. Francesco, 8,763 baby boys
2. Alessandro, 6,708
3. Mattia, 6,402
4. Lorenzo, 6,389
5. Leonardo, 6,144
6. Andrea, 6,047
7. Gabriele, 5,469
8. Matteo, 4,941
9. Tommaso, 4,386
10. Riccardo, 4,351

In the girls’ top 10, Anna replaced Sara, and Alice jumped from 10th to 5th.

The boys’ top 10 is essentially the same, the biggest move being Mattia rising from 6th to 3rd.

Francesco has been on top since 2001, but it became even more popular in 2013 after Pope Francis was elected.

Here are a few more names from within the top 50:

  • Girl names: Ginevra (12th), Gaia (13th), Ludovica (32nd), Ilaria (46th)
  • Boy names: Nicolò (22nd), Simone (24th), Gioele (37th), Nicola (46th)

Nicolò is pronounced nee-ko-LO, whereas Nicola is pronounced nee-KO-lah. The feminine versions of the name are Nicoletta and Nicolina.

Finally, here are the top baby names among foreigners (mainly from Romania, Morocco, Albania and China) living in Italy:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sara
2. Sofia
3. Aurora		1. Adam
2. Youssef
3. Rayan

Intriguingly, Kevin was ranked 8th for boys and 1st (!) among both the Albanians and the Chinese. I mentioned Kevinism in last week’s Senga post and already it’s coming to mind again…

Sources: How many babies are named…? – Istat, These are the most popular Italian baby names, Births and fertility among the resident population: Year 2015 (PDF)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)

The top baby names in Maryland in 2011?

Maryland’s Open Data website includes a small table of popular baby names. It’s based on data from 2011, so it’s a bit out of date, but it does include top-10 lists for several different racial/ethnic groups.

This is cool because New York City does the very same breakdown, and we happen to have the equivalent NYC baby name rankings (2011). So we ought to be able to compare and contrast the two sets of rankings, right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought…until I started looking more closely at Maryland’s data.

According to the SSA, these were the top 10 boy names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Mason
  2. Jacob
  3. Michael
  4. Ethan
  5. Ryan
  6. William
  7. Alexander
  8. Noah
  9. Daniel
  10. Aiden (tied for 10th)
  11. Jayden (tied for 10th)

But according to the state of Maryland, the top 10 boy names were quite different:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1AidenAidenJaidenChristopherLucas
2ChristopherLucasAidenAnthonyMason
3JaydenAlexanderChristopherJohnJackson
4MasonMuhammedCameronAlexanderJacob
5LucasEthanElijahDanielJohn
6JacobNathanJeremyMatthewAiden
7AlexanderJohnMichaelBrianAlexander
8NathanAndrewIsaiahJustinLiam
9MichaelJustinMasonJaidenWilliam
10EthanJacobCalebKevinRyan

It isn’t totally implausible that Aiden and Jayden ranked 1st and 3rd in 2011, but Christopher in 2nd? Maybe if this were a dataset from thirty years ago, but not five years ago. The SSA indicates that Christopher ranked closer to 18th in the state that year.

And what’s with the two different spellings of Jayden/Jaiden?

Plus there are some sizable raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Aiden: 588 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Christopher: 584 babies (MD data) vs. 256 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Jayden: 498 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Mason: 463 babies (MD data) vs. 432 babies (SSA data for MD)

And now the girl names. According to the SSA, these were the top 10 girl names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Sophia
  2. Olivia
  3. Isabella
  4. Madison
  5. Ava
  6. Emma
  7. Abigail
  8. Chloe
  9. Emily
  10. Elizabeth

According to the state of Maryland, though, the top 10 girl names in the state were these:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1SophiaSophiaChloeSophiaSophia
2IsabelChloeLondonEmilyIsabel
3ChloeIsabelLaylaAllisonAbigail
4AvaCaitlin/KateMadisonIsabelOlivia
5MadisonHannahKennedyAshleyAva
6OliviaOliviaAaliyahAngelinaRiley
7EmilySara(h)McKenzieNatalieMadison
8McKenzieAbigailZoe(y)GenesisEmily
9AbigailEmilyPaytonGabrielleMcKenzie
10RileyLillian/LilyTaylorKimberlyChloe

Not only does Isabel magically replace Isabella in the Maryland data, but McKenzie and Riley rank 8th and 10th — even though the SSA says they should be closer to 77th (!) and 28th.

Not to mention the raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Sophia: 503 babies (MD data) vs. 367 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • McKenzie: 325 babies (MD data) vs. 71 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Riley: 298 babies (MD data) vs. 118 babies (SSA data for MD)

Intriguing parallels between the MD data and the NYC data do exist. In both locations, Elijah and Isaiah were in the top 10 for African-American boys only, and London, Aaliyah, and Taylor were in the top 10 for African-American girls only.

But if we can’t trust the data, we can’t draw any meaningful conclusions.

Labels like “Caitlin/Kate,” “Sara(h),” “Zoe(y)” and “Lillian/Lily” suggest that variant names were combined here and there. I suspect this is also what happened with Isabel/Isabella, Sophia/Sofia, Aiden, Jayden, MacKenzie, Riley, and maybe even Christopher (perhaps Maryland merged all the “Chris-” names?). What are your thoughts on this?

Source: Maryland’s Top Ten Most Popular Baby Names in 2011 by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex – Open Data Portal – Maryland.gov

Popular baby names in Slovenia, 2015

Flag of Slovenia
Flag of Slovenia

According to data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, the most popular baby names in the country in 2015 were Ema and Luka.

Here are Slovenia’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl Names

  1. Ema, 267 baby girls
  2. Eva, 259
  3. Zala, 240
  4. Sara, 220
  5. Lara, 206
  6. Nika, 205
  7. Julija, 200
  8. Ana, 183
  9. Lana, 176
  10. Mia, 174

Boy Names

  1. Luka, 328 baby boys
  2. Filip, 254
  3. Nik, 248
  4. Mark, 222
  5. Žan, 206 (tie)
  6. Jakob, 206 (tie)
  7. Jaka, 191
  8. Žiga, 178
  9. David, 168
  10. Anže, 164

In the girls’ top 10, Ana and Lana replaced Neža and Zoja.

In the boys’ top 10, Žiga and David replaced Jan and Vid.

Here are the 2014 rankings for Slovenia.

Sources: Popularity of Names in Slovenia, 2015, Imena in priimki – Statisticni urad Republike Slovenije

Image: Adapted from Flag of Slovenia (public domain)

Popular baby names in Spain, 2015

Flag of Spain
Flag of Spain

According to data from Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica (INE), the most popular baby names in Spain in 2015 were Lucia and Hugo.

Here are Spain’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Lucia, 5,229 baby girls
2. Maria, 4,516
3. Martina, 4,447
4. Paula, 3,854
5. Sofia, 3,525
6. Daniela, 3,392
7. Alba, 3,082
8. Julia, 3,006
9. Carla, 2,951
10. Sara, 2,936		1. Hugo, 5,162 baby boys
2. Daniel, 4,578
3. Pablo, 4,202
4. Martin, 4,078
5. Alejandro, 3,994
6. Adrian, 3,341
7. Alvaro, 3,244
8. David, 2,993
9. Lucas, 2,904
10. Mario, 2,825

Lucia has held the #1 spot since 2003, and Hugo since 2012.

In the girls’ top 10, Alba rose 3 spots, and Julia replaced Valeria.

In the boys’ top 10, Martin rose 4 spots, and Lucas replaced Diego.

In the top 100, Miguel and Jose rank 23rd and 38th, respectively, while the related compound names Miguel Angel and Jose Antonio rank 86th and 94th, respectively.

Other interesting names in the top 100 include…

  • Laia, 34th for girls. It’s a short form of Eulalia in Catalan. Laia ranks 3rd for girls in Catalonia specifically.
  • Leire and Leyre, 39th and 50th for girls. They refer to the Monastery of San Salvador of Leyre in Navarre. Leyre ranks 10th in Navarre specifically.
  • Nerea, 46th for girls. It’s based on the Basque word nere, meaning “my” or “mine” — kind of like a Basque version of Mia.
  • Triana, 38th for girls. Perhaps inspired by the Triana neighborhood of Seville…?
  • Iria, 69th for girls. It might be a form of Irene, based on the ancient Greek word for “peace.” The Marian apparitions of Fátima occurred at the Cova da Iria.
  • Biel, 71st for boys. It’s a short form of Gabriel in Catalan. Biel ranks 5th for boys in Catalonia specifically.
  • Ibai, 99th for boys. It’s the Basque word for “river.” It ranks 4th in both Navarre and the Basque Country.

Here are Spain’s 2014 rankings.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Spain (public domain)