Sailor
Sailor is given to both girls and boys: 206 girls and 40 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,134 among girls’ names and #3,079 among boys’, #1,948 among all names counting both); 4,290 Americans have been recorded with it since 1997 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,260 Americans named Sailor and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sailor by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sailor?
#1,134 among girls’ names, 2025
Sailor fell from #1,094 in 2015 to #1,134 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born held at 0.13 per 1,000.
294 babies in 2016, the peak
Sailor peaked in 2016, when 294 babies were given it (245 girls, #1,066 among girls’ names). The 246 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 84% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 206 | #1,134 | 40 | #3,079 |
| 2024 | 170 | #1,348 | 48 | #2,740 |
| 2023 | 230 | #1,079 | 30 | #3,785 |
| 2022 | 182 | #1,303 | 50 | #2,671 |
| 2021 | 213 | #1,152 | 39 | #3,110 |
| 2020 | 225 | #1,087 | 37 | #3,121 |
| 2019 | 208 | #1,156 | 45 | #2,797 |
| 2018 | 158 | #1,419 | 36 | #3,218 |
| 2017 | 243 | #1,056 | 40 | #2,997 |
| 2016 | 245 | #1,066 | 49 | #2,581 |
Every recorded year (29)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 237 | #1,094 | 44 | #2,756 |
| 2014 | 200 | #1,225 | 23 | #4,369 |
| 2013 | 135 | #1,595 | 25 | #4,037 |
| 2012 | 103 | #1,927 | 19 | #5,005 |
| 2011 | 111 | #1,827 | 14 | #6,187 |
| 2010 | 90 | #2,184 | 12 | #7,013 |
| 2009 | 85 | #2,310 | 12 | #7,149 |
| 2008 | 77 | #2,478 | 23 | #4,366 |
| 2007 | 74 | #2,535 | 13 | #6,540 |
| 2006 | 64 | #2,773 | 15 | #5,729 |
| 2005 | 42 | #3,569 | 7 | #9,934 |
| 2004 | 45 | #3,382 | 13 | #6,071 |
| 2003 | 55 | #2,830 | 10 | #7,139 |
| 2002 | 51 | #2,927 | 14 | #5,336 |
| 2001 | 52 | #2,837 | 9 | #7,399 |
| 2000 | 43 | #3,204 | under 5 | |
| 1999 | 49 | #2,806 | 9 | #6,988 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,131 | 6 | #9,420 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 5 | #10,523 |
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 Sailor a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 4,290 Americans recorded as Sailor, 84% are girls and 16% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sailor: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sailor, and how old are they?
4,260 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,290 Americans ever recorded as Sailor. The median Sailor alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 2,743 people named Sailor (2,264 women and girls, 479 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,866 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,120 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,140 |
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 Sailor born?
The states with the most babies named Sailor are Texas, California and Florida, with 37% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 23 | #1,185 | 0.8× |
| California | 18 | #1,353 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 14 | #1,102 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 10 | #975 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 8 | #874 | 0.7× |
| Wisconsin | 8 | #600 | 0.3× |
| West Virginia | 7 | #267 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,411 | 1.1× |
| Utah | 6 | #690 | 1.4× |
| Alabama | 6 | #806 | 0.8× |
Where Sailor is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sailor is most over-represented in Florida: since 1997 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 Sailor 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 20,619 babies since 1880, Sailor is the second most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 246 of their 1,771 babies (14%), again the second 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 Sailor
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 Sailor and names like it
- Compare Sailor and SaylorBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSailor peaked in 2016.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sailor since 1910.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Sailor.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sailor alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.