Sapphire
Sapphire was given to 233 girls in 2025, #1,058 among girls’ names; 5,048 Americans have been recorded with it since 1979 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,000 Americans named Sapphire and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 5 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sapphire by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sapphire mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sapphire is “a female given name from English from the precious stone.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sapphire?
#1,058 among girls’ names, 2025
Sapphire rose from #1,518 in 2015 to #1,058 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.08 to 0.14 per 1,000.
301 babies in 2022, the peak
Sapphire peaked in 2022, when 301 girls were given it, #913 among girls’ names. The 233 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 233 | #1,058 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 245 | #1,032 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 264 | #977 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 301 | #913 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 226 | #1,097 | 0.14 |
| 2020 | 225 | #1,088 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 209 | #1,155 | 0.12 |
| 2018 | 207 | #1,169 | 0.12 |
| 2017 | 183 | #1,290 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 167 | #1,402 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (47)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 149 | #1,518 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 159 | #1,432 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 133 | #1,623 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 128 | #1,671 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 100 | #1,980 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 94 | #2,116 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 120 | #1,805 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 94 | #2,153 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 108 | #1,925 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 95 | #2,079 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 74 | #2,400 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 90 | #2,036 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 86 | #2,080 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 93 | #1,910 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 88 | #1,960 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 96 | #1,808 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 106 | #1,591 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 117 | #1,466 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 96 | #1,648 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 88 | #1,716 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 92 | #1,618 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 97 | #1,575 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 82 | #1,794 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 74 | #1,899 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 66 | #2,065 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 60 | #2,164 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 31 | #3,376 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 46 | #2,398 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 29 | #3,239 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 24 | #3,618 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 17 | #4,605 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 14 | #5,155 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 9 | #7,158 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 11 | #6,270 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,704 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,873 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,523 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sapphire a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sapphire has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 47 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sapphire: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sapphire, and how old are they?
5,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 5,048 Americans ever recorded as Sapphire. The median Sapphire alive today is 12 years old; half are between 5 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 2,812 people named Sapphire (2,796 women and girls, 16 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,576 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 11 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 733 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,570 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,690 |
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 Sapphire born?
The states with the most babies named Sapphire are New York, Florida and Texas, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 22 | #753 | 1.6× |
| Florida | 21 | #794 | 1.1× |
| Texas | 18 | #1,398 | 0.8× |
| California | 15 | #1,565 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #770 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 10 | #952 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 10 | #915 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #997 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 7 | #1,042 | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #1,109 | 0.6× |
Where Sapphire is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sapphire is most over-represented in New York: since 1979 it was given 1.6 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 Sapphire 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 6,006 babies since 1880, Sapphire is the most given (84% of them). In 2025 it was given to 233 of their 281 babies (83%), again the 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 Sapphire
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 Sapphire and names like it
- Compare Sapphire and SapphiraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSapphire peaked in 2022.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sapphire since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Sapphire: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Sapphire.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sapphire alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.