Sky
Sky is given to both girls and boys: 272 girls and 101 boys were given it in 2025 (#949 among girls’ names and #1,661 among boys’, #1,446 among all names counting both); 13,948 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Sky every year since 1987.
An estimated 13,700 Americans named Sky and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sky by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Sky mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Sky is “a unisex given name from English.”
From sky. As a surname, a translation of German Himmel and an anglicization of Ashkenazic surnames ending in -sky.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Sky?
#949 among girls’ names, 2025
Sky fell from #774 in 2015 to #949 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.21 to 0.17 per 1,000.
510 babies in 2014, the peak
Sky peaked in 2014, when 510 babies were given it (386 girls, #726 among girls’ names). The 373 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 73% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 272 | #949 | 101 | #1,661 |
| 2024 | 333 | #826 | 100 | #1,683 |
| 2023 | 360 | #786 | 105 | #1,648 |
| 2022 | 396 | #737 | 114 | #1,564 |
| 2021 | 405 | #712 | 100 | #1,665 |
| 2020 | 337 | #806 | 96 | #1,670 |
| 2019 | 337 | #810 | 92 | #1,722 |
| 2018 | 315 | #863 | 88 | #1,758 |
| 2017 | 335 | #817 | 91 | #1,724 |
| 2016 | 366 | #776 | 86 | #1,783 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 367 | #774 | 84 | #1,802 |
| 2014 | 386 | #726 | 124 | #1,383 |
| 2013 | 296 | #873 | 96 | #1,611 |
| 2012 | 314 | #851 | 97 | #1,613 |
| 2011 | 264 | #974 | 77 | #1,845 |
| 2010 | 252 | #999 | 104 | #1,549 |
| 2009 | 253 | #1,031 | 94 | #1,684 |
| 2008 | 266 | #997 | 83 | #1,800 |
| 2007 | 272 | #987 | 87 | #1,726 |
| 2006 | 251 | #1,023 | 86 | #1,664 |
| 2005 | 262 | #946 | 91 | #1,548 |
| 2004 | 226 | #1,033 | 87 | #1,538 |
| 2003 | 273 | #884 | 91 | #1,447 |
| 2002 | 252 | #893 | 83 | #1,510 |
| 2001 | 222 | #971 | 86 | #1,445 |
| 2000 | 214 | #992 | 75 | #1,579 |
| 1999 | 215 | #963 | 76 | #1,498 |
| 1998 | 188 | #1,048 | 64 | #1,634 |
| 1997 | 177 | #1,071 | 79 | #1,393 |
| 1996 | 160 | #1,136 | 86 | #1,287 |
| 1995 | 128 | #1,302 | 74 | #1,373 |
| 1994 | 110 | #1,450 | 73 | #1,365 |
| 1993 | 100 | #1,562 | 63 | #1,487 |
| 1992 | 90 | #1,680 | 50 | #1,723 |
| 1991 | 77 | #1,847 | 50 | #1,666 |
| 1990 | 92 | #1,627 | 55 | #1,541 |
| 1989 | 69 | #1,902 | 53 | #1,541 |
| 1988 | 66 | #1,884 | 50 | #1,507 |
| 1987 | 57 | #1,987 | 46 | #1,552 |
| 1986 | 14 | #5,418 | 57 | #1,293 |
| 1985 | 27 | #3,321 | 49 | #1,410 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,856 | 48 | #1,380 |
| 1983 | 26 | #3,224 | 64 | #1,126 |
| 1982 | 30 | #3,009 | 64 | #1,146 |
| 1981 | 27 | #3,232 | 53 | #1,267 |
| 1980 | 30 | #2,989 | 53 | #1,290 |
| 1979 | 39 | #2,424 | 60 | #1,175 |
| 1978 | 36 | #2,464 | 71 | #1,039 |
| 1977 | 27 | #2,985 | 57 | #1,175 |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,268 | 42 | #1,389 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,952 | 61 | #1,080 |
| 1974 | 16 | #4,012 | 48 | #1,214 |
| 1973 | 13 | #4,548 | 25 | #1,812 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,519 | 29 | #1,642 |
| 1971 | 6 | #8,183 | 24 | #1,856 |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,858 | 19 | #2,112 |
| 1969 | under 5 | 11 | #2,835 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 9 | #3,075 | |
| 1967 | under 5 | 6 | #3,914 | |
| 1966 | under 5 | 5 | #4,455 | |
| 1965 | under 5 | 5 | #4,358 | |
| 1964 | under 5 | 5 | #4,529 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 6 | #3,988 | |
| 1962 | under 5 | 11 | #2,656 | |
| 1961 | under 5 | 6 | #4,005 | |
| 1960 | under 5 | 12 | #2,522 | |
| 1959 | under 5 | 12 | #2,515 | |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,900 | 11 | #2,623 |
| 1957 | under 5 | 10 | #2,804 | |
| 1956 | under 5 | 14 | #2,248 | |
| 1955 | under 5 | 5 | #4,323 | |
| 1954 | under 5 | 9 | #2,921 | |
| 1953 | under 5 | 7 | #3,390 |
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 Sky a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 13,948 Americans recorded as Sky, 70% are girls and 30% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Sky: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sky, and how old are they?
13,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 13,948 Americans ever recorded as Sky. The median Sky alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 11,558 people named Sky (7,803 women and girls, 3,755 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,149 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 82 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 699 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,960 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,750 |
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 Sky born?
The states with the most babies named Sky are California, Texas and Florida, with 52% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 71 | #714 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 38 | #1,032 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 32 | #690 | 1.2× |
| New York | 19 | #852 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 19 | #577 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 10 | #918 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 9 | #1,023 | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 9 | #1,049 | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #838 | 0.5× |
| Utah | 8 | #534 | 0.2× |
Where Sky is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sky is most over-represented in California: since 1953 it was given 1.3 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 Sky 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 43,885 babies since 1880, Sky is the second most given (32% of them). In 2025 it was given to 373 of their 1,031 babies (36%), again the second 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 Sky
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 Sky and names like it
- Compare Sky and SkyeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSky peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sky since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Sky: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Sky.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Sky alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.