Sarai
Sarai was given to 733 girls in 2025, #425 among girls’ names; 22,925 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 22,600 Americans named Sarai and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sarai by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sarai mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sarai is “a female given name from Hebrew, most famously borne by Sarah, the wife of Abram and mother of Isaac in the Bible, prior to her name change” Its etymology gives the sense “master, chief” (שר).
From Hebrew שרי (Saráy), from the plural form of שר (“master, chief”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sarai?
#425 among girls’ names, 2025
Sarai rose from #439 in 2015 to #425 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.40 to 0.46 per 1,000.
818 babies in 2007, the peak
Sarai peaked in 2007, when 818 girls were given it, #398 among girls’ names. The 733 births of 2025 are 90% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 733 | #425 | 0.46 |
| 2024 | 702 | #444 | 0.43 |
| 2023 | 749 | #408 | 0.47 |
| 2022 | 737 | #429 | 0.45 |
| 2021 | 685 | #458 | 0.42 |
| 2020 | 650 | #473 | 0.40 |
| 2019 | 728 | #437 | 0.43 |
| 2018 | 756 | #409 | 0.44 |
| 2017 | 720 | #440 | 0.42 |
| 2016 | 645 | #485 | 0.36 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 722 | #439 | 0.40 |
| 2014 | 714 | #449 | 0.40 |
| 2013 | 725 | #420 | 0.41 |
| 2012 | 757 | #416 | 0.43 |
| 2011 | 701 | #443 | 0.40 |
| 2010 | 741 | #424 | 0.42 |
| 2009 | 786 | #403 | 0.43 |
| 2008 | 798 | #404 | 0.42 |
| 2007 | 818 | #398 | 0.43 |
| 2006 | 720 | #443 | 0.38 |
| 2005 | 656 | #464 | 0.36 |
| 2004 | 623 | #473 | 0.34 |
| 2003 | 642 | #464 | 0.35 |
| 2002 | 528 | #518 | 0.29 |
| 2001 | 480 | #549 | 0.27 |
| 2000 | 465 | #560 | 0.26 |
| 1999 | 446 | #565 | 0.25 |
| 1998 | 391 | #617 | 0.22 |
| 1997 | 377 | #603 | 0.22 |
| 1996 | 387 | #589 | 0.22 |
| 1995 | 345 | #631 | 0.20 |
| 1994 | 285 | #733 | 0.16 |
| 1993 | 286 | #736 | 0.16 |
| 1992 | 253 | #797 | 0.14 |
| 1991 | 253 | #808 | 0.13 |
| 1990 | 220 | #879 | 0.12 |
| 1989 | 181 | #962 | 0.10 |
| 1988 | 145 | #1,090 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 166 | #963 | 0.10 |
| 1986 | 128 | #1,134 | 0.07 |
| 1985 | 134 | #1,089 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 108 | #1,214 | 0.06 |
| 1983 | 85 | #1,399 | 0.05 |
| 1982 | 89 | #1,382 | 0.05 |
| 1981 | 79 | #1,525 | 0.05 |
| 1980 | 84 | #1,458 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 74 | #1,566 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 46 | #2,082 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 56 | #1,825 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 43 | #2,051 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 30 | #2,602 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 32 | #2,425 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 19 | #3,444 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 25 | #2,811 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 16 | #3,908 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 21 | #3,182 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 16 | #3,588 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 21 | #2,853 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 15 | #3,445 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 14 | #3,514 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 12 | #3,914 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 16 | #3,357 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 9 | #4,835 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 5 | #7,382 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,608 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,101 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 8 | #4,826 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,375 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sarai a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sarai has been given almost only to girls: 6 boys in 68 years of records.
Girls and boys named Sarai: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sarai, and how old are they?
22,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 22,925 Americans ever recorded as Sarai. The median Sarai alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 18,137 people named Sarai (18,074 women and girls, 63 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 18,633 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 47 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 492 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,070 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 9,830 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 9,210 |
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 Sarai born?
The states with the most babies named Sarai are California, Texas and Florida, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 91 | #364 | 1.7× |
| Texas | 77 | #440 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 77 | #250 | 1.4× |
| New York | 52 | #327 | 1.2× |
| Georgia | 34 | #321 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 30 | #284 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 27 | #399 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 27 | #428 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 25 | #452 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 23 | #464 | 0.5× |
Where Sarai is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sarai is most over-represented in California: since 1953 it was given 1.7 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 Sarai 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 1,589,390 babies since 1880, Sarai is the third most given (1.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 733 of their 5,703 babies (13%), again the third 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 Sarai
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 Sarai and names like it
- Compare Sarai and SarahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSarai peaked in 2007.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sarai since 1910.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Sarai.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sarai alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.