Saima
Saima was given to 9 girls in 2025, #10,755 among girls’ names; 669 Americans have been recorded with it since 1896 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saima by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Saima mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Saima is “a female given name”
19th-century coinage from Saimaa, the name of a lake.
/ˈsɑi̯mɑ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Saima?
#10,755 among girls’ names, 2025
Saima rose from #11,675 in 2015 to #10,755 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 5.0 to 5.6 per million.
21 babies in 1998, the peak
Saima peaked in 1998, when 21 girls were given it, #5,088 among girls’ names. The 9 births of 2025 are 43% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #10,755 | 5.6 |
| 2024 | 5 | #17,238 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | 8 | #12,010 | 5.0 |
| 2022 | 9 | #11,081 | 5.5 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,889 | 7.3 |
| 2020 | 8 | #11,950 | 4.9 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,630 | 6.6 |
| 2017 | 8 | #12,536 | 4.6 |
| 2016 | 9 | #11,618 | 5.1 |
| 2015 | 9 | #11,675 | 5.0 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 11 | #10,035 | 6.2 |
| 2013 | 14 | #8,498 | 8.0 |
| 2011 | 10 | #11,035 | 5.7 |
| 2010 | 17 | #7,451 | 9.6 |
| 2009 | 9 | #12,264 | 4.9 |
| 2008 | 12 | #9,964 | 6.3 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,472 | 5.2 |
| 2006 | 12 | #9,793 | 6.3 |
| 2005 | 13 | #8,765 | 7.0 |
| 2004 | 13 | #8,619 | 7.1 |
| 2003 | 16 | #7,134 | 8.8 |
| 2002 | 10 | #10,084 | 5.6 |
| 2001 | 18 | #6,252 | 10.0 |
| 2000 | 12 | #8,438 | 6.6 |
| 1999 | 17 | #6,134 | 9.6 |
| 1998 | 21 | #5,088 | 11.9 |
| 1996 | 12 | #7,474 | 6.8 |
| 1995 | 15 | #6,187 | 8.5 |
| 1994 | 10 | #8,642 | 5.6 |
| 1993 | 17 | #5,625 | 9.4 |
| 1992 | 6 | #12,995 | 3.3 |
| 1991 | 6 | #12,752 | 3.2 |
| 1990 | 8 | #9,953 | 4.2 |
| 1989 | 5 | #14,025 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 11 | #7,014 | 6.2 |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,566 | 4.6 |
| 1986 | 10 | #7,007 | 5.8 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,058 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,808 | 7.1 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,599 | 6.0 |
| 1982 | 16 | #4,676 | 9.4 |
| 1981 | 12 | #5,817 | 7.2 |
| 1980 | 6 | #10,069 | 3.6 |
| 1979 | 9 | #7,167 | 5.6 |
| 1978 | 5 | #11,067 | 3.3 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,887 | 3.3 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,338 | 6.2 |
| 1972 | 5 | #9,304 | 3.3 |
| 1921 | 6 | #5,012 | 4.9 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,890 | 5.0 |
| 1919 | 7 | #4,191 | 6.2 |
| 1918 | 11 | #2,992 | 9.5 |
| 1917 | 10 | #3,048 | 9.2 |
| 1916 | 11 | #2,801 | 10.5 |
| 1915 | 9 | #3,097 | 9.1 |
| 1914 | 10 | #2,404 | 13.1 |
| 1913 | 7 | #2,779 | 11.2 |
| 1912 | 9 | #2,115 | 16.1 |
| 1911 | 12 | #1,432 | 28.7 |
| 1910 | 10 | #1,611 | 25.2 |
| 1908 | 6 | #2,064 | 17.9 |
| 1906 | 8 | #1,538 | 27.1 |
| 1905 | 6 | #1,894 | 20.6 |
| 1904 | 6 | #1,835 | 21.8 |
| 1903 | 5 | #2,040 | 19.1 |
| 1902 | 6 | #1,761 | 22.7 |
| 1899 | 6 | #1,562 | 25.7 |
| 1898 | 6 | #1,667 | 23.2 |
| 1896 | 5 | #1,777 | 21.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Saima a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Saima has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 69 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Saima: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saima, and how old are they?
An estimated 498 Americans named Saima and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (74% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 16 and 37. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 2,811 people named Saima (2,806 women and girls, 5 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 452 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.2 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 15,733 babies since 1880, Saima is the sixth most given (4.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 9 of their 415 babies (2.2%), again the sixth 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.
More about Saima and names like it
- Compare Saima and SamiyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSaima peaked in 1998.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saima since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Saima: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Saima.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Saima alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.