Saoirse
Saoirse was given to 222 girls in 2025, #1,089 among girls’ names; 4,068 Americans have been recorded with it since 1993 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,040 Americans named Saoirse and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 7 years old and half are between 4 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saoirse by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Saoirse mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Saoirse is “a female given name from Irish.” Its etymology gives the sense “freedom” (saoirse).
Borrowed from Irish Saoirse, from saoirse (“freedom”).
/ˈsɪɚ.ʃə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Saoirse?
#1,089 among girls’ names, 2025
Saoirse rose from #1,451 in 2015 to #1,089 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.09 to 0.14 per 1,000.
373 babies in 2020, the peak
Saoirse peaked in 2020, when 373 girls were given it, #735 among girls’ names. The 222 births of 2025 are 60% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 222 | #1,089 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 245 | #1,031 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 272 | #959 | 0.17 |
| 2022 | 312 | #894 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 344 | #812 | 0.21 |
| 2020 | 373 | #735 | 0.23 |
| 2019 | 334 | #819 | 0.20 |
| 2018 | 331 | #822 | 0.19 |
| 2017 | 276 | #962 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 278 | #970 | 0.16 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 159 | #1,451 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 112 | #1,828 | 0.06 |
| 2013 | 80 | #2,324 | 0.05 |
| 2012 | 110 | #1,845 | 0.06 |
| 2011 | 101 | #1,965 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 72 | #2,560 | 0.04 |
| 2009 | 56 | #3,082 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 82 | #2,377 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 38 | #4,114 | 0.02 |
| 2006 | 42 | #3,721 | 0.02 |
| 2005 | 32 | #4,352 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 31 | #4,467 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 24 | #5,205 | 0.01 |
| 2002 | 30 | #4,258 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 26 | #4,658 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 22 | #5,279 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 14 | #7,154 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 16 | #6,312 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 12 | #7,639 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 12 | #7,479 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 5 | #15,257 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 5 | #15,289 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Saoirse a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Saoirse has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 32 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Saoirse: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saoirse, and how old are they?
4,040 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,068 Americans ever recorded as Saoirse. The median Saoirse alive today is 7 years old; half are between 4 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 2,297 people named Saoirse (2,283 women and girls, 14 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,378 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 22 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 701 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,320 |
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 Saoirse born?
The states with the most babies named Saoirse are Texas, California and New York, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 16 | #1,519 | 0.5× |
| California | 15 | #1,564 | 0.9× |
| New York | 13 | #1,145 | 1.3× |
| Massachusetts | 13 | #442 | 2.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 11 | #863 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 11 | #847 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 10 | #776 | 0.5× |
| Colorado | 8 | #695 | 1.3× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #1,126 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,851 | 0.5× |
Where Saoirse is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Saoirse is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1993 it was given 2.5 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 Saoirse with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Saoirse
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 Saoirse and names like it
- Compare Saoirse and SeraphinaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSaoirse peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saoirse since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Saoirse: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Saoirse.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Saoirse alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.