Sahara
Sahara was given to 98 girls in 2025, #1,978 among girls’ names; 4,734 Americans have been recorded with it since 1964 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,680 Americans named Sahara and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sahara by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sahara?
#1,978 among girls’ names, 2025
Sahara fell from #1,738 in 2015 to #1,978 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 67.8 to 61.0 per million.
248 babies in 2006, the peak
Sahara peaked in 2006, when 248 girls were given it, #1,035 among girls’ names. The 98 births of 2025 are 40% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 98 | #1,978 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 126 | #1,645 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 123 | #1,688 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 133 | #1,598 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 133 | #1,582 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 143 | #1,500 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 142 | #1,525 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 121 | #1,716 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 127 | #1,694 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 103 | #1,952 | 0.06 |
Every recorded year (57)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 121 | #1,738 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 111 | #1,836 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 126 | #1,683 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 144 | #1,537 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 180 | #1,310 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 172 | #1,361 | 0.10 |
| 2009 | 169 | #1,403 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 201 | #1,255 | 0.11 |
| 2007 | 248 | #1,058 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 248 | #1,035 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 200 | #1,160 | 0.11 |
| 2004 | 101 | #1,879 | 0.06 |
| 2003 | 83 | #2,118 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 96 | #1,861 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 92 | #1,895 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 108 | #1,642 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 110 | #1,541 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 94 | #1,702 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 81 | #1,839 | 0.05 |
| 1996 | 72 | #1,972 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 80 | #1,795 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 76 | #1,883 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 63 | #2,140 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 70 | #1,974 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 50 | #2,504 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 48 | #2,509 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 45 | #2,557 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 43 | #2,516 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 39 | #2,604 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 30 | #3,112 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 28 | #3,220 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,807 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,874 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,464 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,702 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 10 | #6,664 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 16 | #4,575 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 19 | #3,887 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 14 | #4,871 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,929 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,768 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,865 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,461 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,303 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #5,897 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,790 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #7,599 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sahara a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sahara has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 57 years of records.
Girls and boys named Sahara: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sahara, and how old are they?
4,680 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,734 Americans ever recorded as Sahara. The median Sahara alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 4,133 people named Sahara (4,087 women and girls, 46 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,973 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 4 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 97 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 671 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,310 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,600 |
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 Sahara born?
The states with the most babies named Sahara are California, North Carolina and New York, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 11 | #1,925 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 11 | #893 | 0.5× |
| New York | 8 | #1,632 | 1.2× |
| Texas | 7 | #2,875 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,328 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,107 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,366 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,379 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,662 | 0.3× |
Where Sahara is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sahara is most over-represented in New York: since 1964 it was given 1.2 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 Sahara 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 452,330 babies since 1880, Sahara is the second most given (1.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 98 of their 1,958 babies (5.0%), the third most given that year.
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 Sahara
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 Sahara and names like it
- Compare Sahara and SaraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSahara peaked in 2006.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sahara since 1910.
- The top names of 2006The year the most babies were named Sahara.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sahara alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.