Sparkle
Sparkle was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,960 among girls’ names; 1,641 Americans have been recorded with it since 1948 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,590 Americans named Sparkle and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 40 years old and half are between 31 and 46.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Sparkle by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Sparkle?
#16,960 among girls’ names, 2025
Sparkle fell from #14,323 in 2015 to #16,960 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 3.9 to 3.1 per million.
124 babies in 1979, the peak
Sparkle peaked in 1979, when 124 girls were given it, #1,103 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,960 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | 5 | #17,306 | 3.1 |
| 2022 | 7 | #13,405 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 8 | #12,063 | 4.9 |
| 2020 | 7 | #13,309 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,259 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 9 | #11,318 | 5.3 |
| 2017 | 7 | #13,932 | 4.1 |
| 2016 | 6 | #15,998 | 3.4 |
| 2015 | 7 | #14,323 | 3.9 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 19 | #6,673 | 10.6 |
| 2013 | 12 | #9,533 | 6.8 |
| 2012 | 9 | #12,094 | 5.1 |
| 2011 | 13 | #9,077 | 7.4 |
| 2010 | 6 | #16,715 | 3.4 |
| 2009 | 11 | #10,581 | 6.0 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,492 | 5.3 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,465 | 7.8 |
| 2006 | 11 | #10,522 | 5.8 |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,856 | 4.3 |
| 2004 | 18 | #6,724 | 9.8 |
| 2003 | 9 | #11,211 | 4.9 |
| 2002 | 21 | #5,642 | 11.7 |
| 2001 | 16 | #6,920 | 8.9 |
| 2000 | 23 | #5,129 | 12.7 |
| 1999 | 29 | #4,067 | 16.3 |
| 1998 | 24 | #4,614 | 13.6 |
| 1997 | 33 | #3,528 | 19.0 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,857 | 12.0 |
| 1995 | 24 | #4,328 | 13.6 |
| 1994 | 24 | #4,357 | 13.4 |
| 1993 | 36 | #3,210 | 19.9 |
| 1992 | 42 | #2,860 | 22.8 |
| 1991 | 45 | #2,691 | 24.0 |
| 1990 | 47 | #2,560 | 24.8 |
| 1989 | 53 | #2,270 | 28.7 |
| 1988 | 52 | #2,204 | 29.2 |
| 1987 | 66 | #1,788 | 38.0 |
| 1986 | 66 | #1,765 | 38.5 |
| 1985 | 58 | #1,926 | 33.7 |
| 1984 | 59 | #1,832 | 35.0 |
| 1983 | 83 | #1,420 | 49.7 |
| 1982 | 80 | #1,509 | 47.2 |
| 1981 | 84 | #1,453 | 50.4 |
| 1980 | 110 | #1,204 | 66.3 |
| 1979 | 124 | #1,103 | 77.2 |
| 1978 | 72 | #1,545 | 47.0 |
| 1977 | 89 | #1,312 | 58.1 |
| 1976 | 44 | #2,024 | 30.0 |
| 1948 | 5 | #5,936 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Sparkle a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Sparkle has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Sparkle: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Sparkle, and how old are they?
1,590 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,641 Americans ever recorded as Sparkle. The median Sparkle alive today is 40 years old; half are between 31 and 46.
The 2020 Census counted 1,379 people named Sparkle (1,372 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,573 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 418 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 814 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 253 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 100 |
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 Sparkle born?
The states with the most babies named Sparkle are Illinois, California and New York, with 55% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois | 135 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| California | 134 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New York | 96 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 72 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Texas | 55 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 38 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Louisiana | 34 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Missouri | 25 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 24 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 17 | not ranked | 0.4× |
Where Sparkle is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Sparkle is most over-represented in Illinois: since 1948 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 Sparkle 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 Sparkle
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 Sparkle and names like it
- Compare Sparkle and ShavonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sSparkle peaked in 1979.
- Illinois’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Sparkle since 1910.
- The top names of 1979The year the most babies were named Sparkle.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Sparkle alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with SMost given first.