Sierra
Sierra was given to 476 girls in 2025, #616 among girls’ names; 100,866 Americans have been recorded with it since 1940 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 99,200 Americans named Sierra and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 22 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sierra by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sierra mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sierra is “a female given name of modern American usage, from the Spanish noun, confused with Ciara and Sarah.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sierra?
#616 among girls’ names, 2025
Sierra fell from #404 in 2015 to #616 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.45 to 0.30 per 1,000.
5,853 babies in 1998, the peak
Sierra peaked in 1998, when 5,853 babies were given it (5,841 girls, #51 among girls’ names). The 476 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 476 | #616 | 0.30 |
| 2024 | 508 | #596 | 0.31 |
| 2023 | 525 | #567 | 0.33 |
| 2022 | 552 | #551 | 0.34 |
| 2021 | 612 | #508 | 0.37 |
| 2020 | 568 | #534 | 0.35 |
| 2019 | 630 | #499 | 0.38 |
| 2018 | 699 | #454 | 0.41 |
| 2017 | 704 | #450 | 0.41 |
| 2016 | 771 | #424 | 0.44 |
Every recorded year (82)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 800 | #404 | 0.45 |
| 2014 | 949 | #351 | 0.53 |
| 2013 | 945 | #345 | 0.54 |
| 2012 | 1,170 | #278 | 0.66 |
| 2011 | 1,149 | #278 | 0.65 |
| 2010 | 1,455 | #214 | 0.82 |
| 2009 | 1,676 | #196 | 0.91 |
| 2008 | 1,903 | #175 | 1.0 |
| 2007 | 2,114 | #168 | 1.1 |
| 2006 | 2,466 | #140 | 1.3 |
| 2005 | 3,049 | #105 | 1.7 |
| 2004 | 3,520 | #92 | 1.9 |
| 2003 | 4,242 | #73 | 2.3 |
| 2002 | 4,807 | #62 | 2.7 |
| 2001 | 5,237 | #55 | 2.9 |
| 2000 | 5,520 | #53 | 3.0 |
| 1999 | 5,715 | #49 | 3.2 |
| 1998 | 5,841 | #51 | 3.3 |
| 1997 | 5,688 | #56 | 3.3 |
| 1996 | 5,487 | #62 | 3.1 |
| 1995 | 5,495 | #60 | 3.1 |
| 1994 | 4,853 | #71 | 2.7 |
| 1993 | 3,473 | #91 | 1.9 |
| 1992 | 2,614 | #129 | 1.4 |
| 1991 | 2,302 | #138 | 1.2 |
| 1990 | 2,170 | #141 | 1.1 |
| 1989 | 1,863 | #155 | 1.0 |
| 1988 | 1,550 | #181 | 0.87 |
| 1987 | 1,620 | #173 | 0.93 |
| 1986 | 1,610 | #169 | 0.94 |
| 1985 | 1,198 | #216 | 0.70 |
| 1984 | 231 | #717 | 0.14 |
| 1983 | 193 | #808 | 0.12 |
| 1982 | 210 | #782 | 0.12 |
| 1981 | 187 | #840 | 0.11 |
| 1980 | 184 | #850 | 0.11 |
| 1979 | 159 | #930 | 0.10 |
| 1978 | 158 | #906 | 0.10 |
| 1977 | 134 | #1,007 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 91 | #1,242 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 76 | #1,400 | 0.05 |
| 1974 | 57 | #1,643 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 41 | #2,008 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 24 | #2,889 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 24 | #2,937 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 23 | #3,015 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,688 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 5 | #8,020 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 16 | #3,313 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,718 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,738 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 9 | #4,952 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,233 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,772 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #5,244 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 6 | #6,134 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #5,330 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #5,300 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,780 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,685 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,603 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 5 | #6,289 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,998 | under 0.01 |
| 1948 | 11 | #3,322 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #6,015 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 11 | #3,190 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 14 | #2,441 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 15 | #2,382 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 19 | #2,066 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,645 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 24 | #1,645 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 32 | #1,344 | 0.03 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sierra a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sierra has been given almost only to girls: 269 boys in 82 years of records.
Girls and boys named Sierra: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sierra, and how old are they?
99,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 100,866 Americans ever recorded as Sierra. The median Sierra alive today is 27 years old; half are between 22 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 85,582 people named Sierra (85,372 women and girls, 210 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 96,527 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 57 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 90 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 994 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 34,400 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 55,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,680 |
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 Sierra born?
The states with the most babies named Sierra are California, Texas and New York, with 44% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 129 | #260 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 30 | #980 | 0.7× |
| New York | 24 | #700 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 22 | #764 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #684 | 1.0× |
| Virginia | 15 | #538 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #772 | 1.0× |
| Utah | 13 | #358 | 1.5× |
| Minnesota | 13 | #419 | 0.7× |
| Colorado | 11 | #532 | 1.4× |
Where Sierra is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sierra is most over-represented in Alaska: since 1940 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 Sierra 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 135,795 babies since 1880, Sierra is the most given (74% of them). In 2025 it was given to 476 of their 632 babies (75%), 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 Sierra
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 Sierra and names like it
- Compare Sierra and CierraBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSierra peaked in 1998.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sierra since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Sierra: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Sierra.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Sierra alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.