Sahar
Sahar was given to 43 girls in 2025, #3,564 among girls’ names; 2,482 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,440 Americans named Sahar and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 13 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sahar by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sahar mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sahar is “a female given name from Arabic, used in Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Of Arabic or Persian origin. In Persian, سحر (sahar, “dawn”). (In Hebrew, סַהַר (sáhar, “crescent”).)
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sahar?
#3,564 among girls’ names, 2025
Sahar fell from #3,083 in 2015 to #3,564 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 30.8 to 26.8 per million.
83 babies in 1996, the peak
Sahar peaked in 1996, when 83 girls were given it, #1,787 among girls’ names. The 43 births of 2025 are 52% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #3,564 | 26.8 |
| 2024 | 47 | #3,381 | 29.0 |
| 2023 | 46 | #3,465 | 28.7 |
| 2022 | 62 | #2,782 | 37.8 |
| 2021 | 48 | #3,331 | 29.3 |
| 2020 | 44 | #3,490 | 27.2 |
| 2019 | 50 | #3,214 | 29.8 |
| 2018 | 49 | #3,282 | 28.8 |
| 2017 | 52 | #3,132 | 30.1 |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,962 | 32.2 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 55 | #3,083 | 30.8 |
| 2014 | 46 | #3,475 | 25.8 |
| 2013 | 51 | #3,211 | 29.1 |
| 2012 | 31 | #4,686 | 17.6 |
| 2011 | 45 | #3,542 | 25.6 |
| 2010 | 42 | #3,737 | 23.6 |
| 2009 | 36 | #4,259 | 19.6 |
| 2008 | 44 | #3,696 | 23.3 |
| 2007 | 44 | #3,711 | 22.9 |
| 2006 | 45 | #3,550 | 23.7 |
| 2005 | 35 | #4,098 | 18.9 |
| 2004 | 45 | #3,381 | 24.5 |
| 2003 | 56 | #2,791 | 30.6 |
| 2002 | 60 | #2,600 | 33.4 |
| 2001 | 60 | #2,558 | 33.3 |
| 2000 | 70 | #2,251 | 38.5 |
| 1999 | 61 | #2,416 | 34.4 |
| 1998 | 56 | #2,487 | 31.7 |
| 1997 | 61 | #2,249 | 35.0 |
| 1996 | 83 | #1,787 | 47.3 |
| 1995 | 58 | #2,301 | 33.0 |
| 1994 | 63 | #2,155 | 35.3 |
| 1993 | 73 | #1,931 | 40.4 |
| 1992 | 56 | #2,334 | 30.4 |
| 1991 | 59 | #2,227 | 31.5 |
| 1990 | 62 | #2,118 | 32.7 |
| 1989 | 55 | #2,209 | 29.8 |
| 1988 | 50 | #2,266 | 28.1 |
| 1987 | 51 | #2,146 | 29.3 |
| 1986 | 61 | #1,856 | 35.6 |
| 1985 | 48 | #2,199 | 27.9 |
| 1984 | 46 | #2,180 | 27.3 |
| 1983 | 42 | #2,300 | 25.1 |
| 1982 | 32 | #2,886 | 18.9 |
| 1981 | 28 | #3,128 | 16.8 |
| 1980 | 26 | #3,298 | 15.7 |
| 1979 | 30 | #2,914 | 18.7 |
| 1978 | 22 | #3,477 | 14.4 |
| 1977 | 16 | #4,381 | 10.4 |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,302 | 10.2 |
| 1975 | 12 | #5,092 | 8.2 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,733 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 11 | #5,127 | 7.5 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,316 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sahar a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,482 Americans recorded as Sahar, 99% are girls and 1% boys. In 2025 it went to 43 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sahar: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sahar, and how old are they?
2,440 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 2,482 Americans ever recorded as Sahar. The median Sahar alive today is 26 years old; half are between 13 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 5,431 people named Sahar (5,294 women and girls, 137 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,166 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 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 | 138 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 849 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 800 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 652 |
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 Sahar born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 5 | #3,708 | 0.6× |
Where Sahar is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sahar is most over-represented in California: since 1971 it was given 1.9 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 Sahar 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,662 babies since 1880, Sahar is the most given (93% of them). In 2025 it was given to 43 of their 43 babies (100%), 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 Sahar
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 Sahar and names like it
- Compare Sahar and SaherBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSahar peaked in 1996.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sahar since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Sahar: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Sahar.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Sahar alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.