Sage
Sage is a unisex name: 1,853 girls and 684 boys were given it in 2025 (#160 among girls’ names and #456 among boys’, #259 among all names counting both); 46,216 Americans have been recorded with it since 1921 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Sage every year since 1993.
An estimated 45,700 Americans named Sage and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sage by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sage mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sage is “a female given name from English.”
Also “a male given name from English.”
As an English and French surname, from sage, a nickname for a wise person. The given name, in general use since the 1990s, is also associated with the sage plant. Compare Desage, Lesage.
As an Irish surname, variant of Savage.
As a German surname, from a placename derived from the noun sege (“sedge”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sage?
#160 among girls’ names, 2025
Sage rose from #369 in 2015 to #160 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.50 to 1.2 per 1,000.
2,842 babies in 2022, the peak
Sage peaked in 2022, when 2,842 babies were given it (2,014 girls, #143 among girls’ names). The 2,537 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 89% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,853 | #160 | 684 | #456 |
| 2024 | 1,994 | #146 | 781 | #414 |
| 2023 | 1,961 | #142 | 758 | #419 |
| 2022 | 2,014 | #143 | 828 | #387 |
| 2021 | 1,675 | #177 | 731 | #422 |
| 2020 | 1,319 | #223 | 682 | #436 |
| 2019 | 1,173 | #279 | 673 | #448 |
| 2018 | 1,095 | #305 | 693 | #439 |
| 2017 | 1,049 | #312 | 632 | #472 |
| 2016 | 941 | #353 | 528 | #549 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 890 | #369 | 403 | #647 |
| 2014 | 844 | #387 | 408 | #646 |
| 2013 | 666 | #457 | 322 | #727 |
| 2012 | 624 | #492 | 326 | #720 |
| 2011 | 647 | #461 | 261 | #831 |
| 2010 | 642 | #471 | 264 | #813 |
| 2009 | 793 | #397 | 299 | #761 |
| 2008 | 692 | #457 | 300 | #750 |
| 2007 | 684 | #470 | 322 | #719 |
| 2006 | 767 | #415 | 330 | #685 |
| 2005 | 868 | #364 | 338 | #646 |
| 2004 | 881 | #358 | 310 | #661 |
| 2003 | 748 | #407 | 351 | #602 |
| 2002 | 683 | #427 | 380 | #575 |
| 2001 | 589 | #471 | 383 | #552 |
| 2000 | 557 | #489 | 392 | #543 |
| 1999 | 521 | #501 | 392 | #530 |
| 1998 | 393 | #612 | 360 | #551 |
| 1997 | 460 | #521 | 416 | #500 |
| 1996 | 337 | #661 | 311 | #581 |
| 1995 | 289 | #715 | 254 | #654 |
| 1994 | 254 | #798 | 202 | #739 |
| 1993 | 212 | #910 | 176 | #797 |
| 1992 | 187 | #1,007 | 193 | #743 |
| 1991 | 167 | #1,082 | 257 | #635 |
| 1990 | 115 | #1,376 | 104 | #1,037 |
| 1989 | 80 | #1,709 | 51 | #1,583 |
| 1988 | 67 | #1,853 | 55 | #1,416 |
| 1987 | 61 | #1,895 | 30 | #2,045 |
| 1986 | 37 | #2,664 | 40 | #1,639 |
| 1985 | 44 | #2,308 | 46 | #1,475 |
| 1984 | 37 | #2,560 | 26 | #2,087 |
| 1983 | 34 | #2,639 | 28 | #1,947 |
| 1982 | 51 | #2,046 | 39 | #1,586 |
| 1981 | 41 | #2,400 | 33 | #1,757 |
| 1980 | 35 | #2,692 | 35 | #1,689 |
| 1979 | 46 | #2,176 | 31 | #1,826 |
| 1978 | 53 | #1,885 | 57 | #1,183 |
| 1977 | 52 | #1,920 | 34 | #1,637 |
| 1976 | 38 | #2,246 | 44 | #1,344 |
| 1975 | 35 | #2,346 | 32 | #1,622 |
| 1974 | 39 | #2,124 | 24 | #1,924 |
| 1973 | 21 | #3,212 | 27 | #1,728 |
| 1972 | 26 | #2,727 | 24 | #1,865 |
| 1971 | 15 | #4,081 | 22 | #1,977 |
| 1970 | 16 | #3,836 | 23 | #1,884 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,667 | 7 | #3,870 |
| 1968 | 10 | #4,710 | 5 | #4,632 |
| 1966 | 10 | #4,423 | under 5 | |
| 1964 | 6 | #6,634 | under 5 | |
| 1963 | 5 | #7,429 | under 5 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 5 | #4,870 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Sage a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 46,216 Americans recorded as Sage, 66% are girls and 34% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sage: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sage, and how old are they?
45,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 46,216 Americans ever recorded as Sage. The median Sage alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 29,088 people named Sage (18,796 women and girls, 10,292 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 31,084 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 10 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 713 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,740 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 15,800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 25,400 |
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 Sage born?
The states with the most babies named Sage are California, Texas and Florida, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 281 | #160 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 207 | #206 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 145 | #153 | 0.9× |
| New York | 119 | #214 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 92 | #161 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 90 | #161 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 88 | #191 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 83 | #184 | 0.7× |
| Utah | 77 | #49 | 2.3× |
| Illinois | 72 | #190 | 0.5× |
Where Sage is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sage is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1921 it was given 2.7 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 Sage 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 60,345 babies since 1880, Sage is the most given (77% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,537 of their 3,290 babies (77%), 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 Sage
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 Sage and names like it
- Compare Sage and SaigeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSage peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sage since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Sage: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Sage.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sage alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.