Saba
Saba is given to both girls and boys: 27 girls and 6 boys were given it in 2025 (#4,966 among girls’ names and #11,742 among boys’, #7,536 among all names counting both); 1,681 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,650 Americans named Saba and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 15 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saba by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Saba mean?
Wiktionary, Italian section
Saba is “a male given name from Hebrew, of historical usage, equivalent to English Sheba”
From Latin Saba, from Ancient Greek Σάβα (Sába), from Hebrew שְׁבָא (Šəḇā).
/ˈsa.ba/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Italian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Saba?
#4,966 among girls’ names, 2025
Saba rose from #5,097 in 2015 to #4,966 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 15.1 to 16.8 per million.
57 babies in 1997, the peak
Saba peaked in 1997, when 57 babies were given it (49 girls, #2,612 among girls’ names). The 33 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 58% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 27 | #4,966 | 16.8 |
| 2024 | 29 | #4,754 | 17.9 |
| 2023 | 23 | #5,516 | 14.3 |
| 2022 | 33 | #4,359 | 20.1 |
| 2021 | 22 | #5,708 | 13.4 |
| 2020 | 23 | #5,458 | 14.2 |
| 2019 | 19 | #6,368 | 11.3 |
| 2018 | 32 | #4,438 | 18.8 |
| 2017 | 32 | #4,467 | 18.5 |
| 2016 | 35 | #4,225 | 19.8 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 27 | #5,097 | 15.1 |
| 2014 | 24 | #5,600 | 13.4 |
| 2013 | 21 | #6,206 | 12.0 |
| 2012 | 32 | #4,583 | 18.2 |
| 2011 | 26 | #5,330 | 14.8 |
| 2010 | 35 | #4,288 | 19.7 |
| 2009 | 21 | #6,504 | 11.4 |
| 2008 | 29 | #5,113 | 15.3 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,918 | 15.6 |
| 2006 | 39 | #3,909 | 20.5 |
| 2005 | 44 | #3,449 | 23.8 |
| 2004 | 41 | #3,606 | 22.3 |
| 2003 | 32 | #4,184 | 17.5 |
| 2002 | 38 | #3,581 | 21.1 |
| 2001 | 51 | #2,867 | 28.3 |
| 2000 | 33 | #3,859 | 18.2 |
| 1999 | 41 | #3,175 | 23.1 |
| 1998 | 43 | #3,001 | 24.3 |
| 1997 | 49 | #2,612 | 28.1 |
| 1996 | 36 | #3,285 | 20.5 |
| 1995 | 36 | #3,198 | 20.5 |
| 1994 | 50 | #2,528 | 28.0 |
| 1993 | 31 | #3,559 | 17.1 |
| 1992 | 42 | #2,854 | 22.8 |
| 1991 | 47 | #2,607 | 25.1 |
| 1990 | 32 | #3,415 | 16.9 |
| 1989 | 34 | #3,139 | 18.4 |
| 1988 | 33 | #3,078 | 18.5 |
| 1987 | 33 | #2,958 | 19.0 |
| 1986 | 42 | #2,409 | 24.5 |
| 1985 | 30 | #3,064 | 17.4 |
| 1984 | 27 | #3,212 | 16.0 |
| 1983 | 23 | #3,523 | 13.8 |
| 1982 | 22 | #3,731 | 13.0 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,494 | 10.2 |
| 1980 | 22 | #3,696 | 13.3 |
| 1979 | 12 | #5,671 | 7.5 |
| 1978 | 18 | #4,039 | 11.8 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,746 | 5.9 |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,301 | 10.2 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,427 | 7.5 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,268 | 7.5 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,184 | 4.1 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,829 | 5.9 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,242 | 4.6 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Saba a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,681 Americans recorded as Saba, 94% are girls and 6% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Saba: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saba, and how old are they?
1,650 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,681 Americans ever recorded as Saba. The median Saba alive today is 26 years old; half are between 15 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 5,040 people named Saba (4,652 women and girls, 388 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,495 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 114 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 547 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 614 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 375 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Saba born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 5 | #3,445 | 1.1× |
Where Saba is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Saba is most over-represented in New York: since 1970 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Saba with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 2,689 babies since 1880, Saba is the most given (63% of them). In 2025 it was given to 33 of their 68 babies (49%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Saba
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Saba and names like it
- Compare Saba and SabahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSaba peaked in 1997.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saba since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Saba: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Saba.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Saba alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.