Sanai
Sanai was given to 160 girls in 2025, #1,378 among girls’ names; 4,261 Americans have been recorded with it since 1994 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,230 Americans named Sanai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 19.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sanai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sanai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sanai is “a female given name from Persian.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sanai?
#1,378 among girls’ names, 2025
Sanai rose from #1,485 in 2015 to #1,378 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 86.8 to 99.5 per million.
297 babies in 2008, the peak
Sanai peaked in 2008, when 297 girls were given it, #924 among girls’ names. The 160 births of 2025 are 54% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 160 | #1,378 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 133 | #1,588 | 0.08 |
| 2023 | 130 | #1,610 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 139 | #1,545 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 141 | #1,505 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 143 | #1,502 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 134 | #1,595 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 139 | #1,566 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 136 | #1,604 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 162 | #1,432 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (27)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 155 | #1,485 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 132 | #1,633 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 176 | #1,335 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 177 | #1,330 | 0.10 |
| 2011 | 222 | #1,114 | 0.13 |
| 2010 | 243 | #1,029 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 276 | #966 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 297 | #924 | 0.16 |
| 2007 | 251 | #1,047 | 0.13 |
| 2006 | 264 | #986 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 182 | #1,250 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 188 | #1,192 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 129 | #1,518 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 68 | #2,371 | 0.04 |
| 2001 | 45 | #3,129 | 0.02 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,569 | under 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #15,253 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sanai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sanai has been given almost only to girls: 25 boys in 27 years of records.
Girls and boys named Sanai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sanai, and how old are they?
4,230 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,261 Americans ever recorded as Sanai. The median Sanai alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 19.
The 2020 Census counted 2,681 people named Sanai (2,631 women and girls, 50 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,421 born in the U.S. The Census count is 22% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,340 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,880 |
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 Sanai born?
The states with the most babies named Sanai are Texas, Florida and California, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 20 | #1,306 | 0.4× |
| Florida | 16 | #993 | 1.6× |
| California | 14 | #1,641 | 0.7× |
| Georgia | 14 | #745 | 2.4× |
| New York | 10 | #1,402 | 2.2× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #837 | 2.7× |
| North Carolina | 9 | #1,047 | 1.2× |
| Maryland | 9 | #594 | 1.7× |
| Virginia | 8 | #918 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,372 | 2.0× |
Where Sanai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sanai is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1994 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 Sanai 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 23,322 babies since 1880, Sanai is the third most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 160 of their 520 babies (31%), the 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 Sanai
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 Sanai and names like it
- Compare Sanai and SanaaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSanai peaked in 2008.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sanai since 1910.
- Persian namesWiktionary’s origin for Sanai: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Sanai.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sanai alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.