Sawyer
Sawyer is a unisex name: 1,056 girls and 2,941 boys were given it in 2025 (#291 among girls’ names and #122 among boys’, #141 among all names counting both); 84,176 Americans have been recorded with it since 1913 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 83,400 Americans named Sawyer and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 6 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sawyer by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sawyer mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sawyer is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “one who saws” (sawyer).
As an English occupational surname, from sawyer (“one who saws”). Senses loaned from various languages include Jewish/German Seger and Sager, Slovene Žagar.
As a French surname, variant of Seguin.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sawyer?
#122 among boys’ names, 2025
Sawyer fell from #94 in 2015 to #122 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 2.2 to 1.7 per 1,000.
5,562 babies in 2017, the peak
Sawyer peaked in 2017, when 5,562 babies were given it (4,171 boys, #95 among boys’ names). The 3,997 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 72% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,056 | #291 | 2,941 | #122 |
| 2024 | 1,065 | #297 | 2,768 | #131 |
| 2023 | 1,124 | #280 | 2,843 | #127 |
| 2022 | 1,260 | #242 | 2,914 | #131 |
| 2021 | 1,377 | #216 | 3,259 | #114 |
| 2020 | 1,259 | #239 | 3,189 | #116 |
| 2019 | 1,292 | #248 | 3,559 | #106 |
| 2018 | 1,428 | #219 | 3,878 | #100 |
| 2017 | 1,391 | #225 | 4,171 | #95 |
| 2016 | 1,283 | #245 | 4,248 | #97 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,221 | #261 | 4,272 | #94 |
| 2014 | 965 | #344 | 3,597 | #110 |
| 2013 | 688 | #447 | 3,166 | #120 |
| 2012 | 542 | #550 | 2,741 | #147 |
| 2011 | 386 | #719 | 2,179 | #172 |
| 2010 | 350 | #788 | 2,220 | #173 |
| 2009 | 253 | #1,029 | 1,897 | #202 |
| 2008 | 175 | #1,379 | 1,674 | #225 |
| 2007 | 135 | #1,654 | 1,511 | #240 |
| 2006 | 147 | #1,502 | 1,389 | #247 |
| 2005 | 102 | #1,905 | 1,069 | #307 |
| 2004 | 103 | #1,851 | 592 | #439 |
| 2003 | 69 | #2,405 | 570 | #441 |
| 2002 | 64 | #2,490 | 463 | #499 |
| 2001 | 62 | #2,504 | 471 | #487 |
| 2000 | 81 | #2,043 | 517 | #461 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,460 | 463 | #482 |
| 1998 | 60 | #2,357 | 429 | #502 |
| 1997 | 42 | #2,923 | 389 | #520 |
| 1996 | 55 | #2,389 | 380 | #525 |
| 1995 | 52 | #2,471 | 438 | #492 |
| 1994 | 38 | #3,082 | 463 | #469 |
| 1993 | 42 | #2,863 | 375 | #532 |
| 1992 | 23 | #4,492 | 299 | #594 |
| 1991 | 20 | #4,959 | 126 | #947 |
| 1990 | 16 | #5,772 | 91 | #1,128 |
| 1989 | 16 | #5,488 | 72 | #1,285 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,186 | 53 | #1,459 |
| 1987 | 14 | #5,551 | 63 | #1,228 |
| 1986 | 10 | #7,018 | 48 | #1,452 |
| 1985 | under 5 | 19 | #2,691 | |
| 1984 | under 5 | 11 | #3,888 | |
| 1983 | under 5 | 9 | #4,433 | |
| 1978 | under 5 | 5 | #6,598 | |
| 1913 | under 5 | 7 | #2,468 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Sawyer a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 84,176 Americans recorded as Sawyer, 22% are girls and 78% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sawyer: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sawyer, and how old are they?
83,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 84,176 Americans ever recorded as Sawyer. The median Sawyer alive today is 10 years old; half are between 6 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 56,257 people named Sawyer (10,725 women and girls, 45,532 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 59,716 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,650 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 20,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 59,800 |
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 Sawyer born?
The states with the most babies named Sawyer are Texas, Ohio and California, with 17% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 287 | #204 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 209 | #75 | 1.0× |
| California | 189 | #288 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 178 | #87 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 162 | #162 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 145 | #108 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 139 | #95 | 1.2× |
| Tennessee | 130 | #78 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 129 | #127 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 122 | #82 | 1.2× |
Where Sawyer is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sawyer is most over-represented in Wisconsin: since 1913 it was given 2.1 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 boys’ 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 Sawyer 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 Sawyer
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1910-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Rayan | 9,953 |
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 Sawyer and names like it
- Compare Sawyer and RayanBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSawyer peaked in 2017.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sawyer since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Sawyer: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Sawyer.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sawyer alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.