Sara
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: from Hebrew Sara(h) 'princess'; first attested Sarra c1160 DC (Leicestershire)
A female name· listed as female by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 88 countries · latest register: Þjóðskrá Íslands, 2026
/ˈsa.ɾa/(recorded in a dictionary) Spanish · from Wiktionary
Sara is a female given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Italy than in any other country. In Portugal it is the 33rd most common given name.
- ITItaly≈1 in 140(inferred from the name graph)
- SESweden1 in 147
- PTPortugal≈1 in 150
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Italy (inferred from the name graph)
- #666 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 477 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 138 (inferred from the name graph)
≈430,000 people, est.
of 15M given names, spellings grouped
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Italy, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)wife of the Prophet Ibrahim and mother of the Prophet Ismail
Cited for this meaning 1
- A Dictionary of Muslim Names
Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.
How Sara is read
(measured from records)Sara is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English43%
from Hebrew Sara(h) 'princess'; first attested Sarra c1160 DC (Leicestershire)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
A female given name from Latin [in turn from Ancient Greek, in turn from Hebrew], variant of Sarah.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Spanish24%
No dictionary in our sources glosses Sara in Spanish.
- Arabic6.4%
wife of the Prophet Ibrahim and mother of the Prophet Ismail
as a nameA Dictionary of Muslim Names
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Sara, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Sara counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT Italy | #875 | ≈430,000 est. | ≈1 in 138 | — | Sara | 145 |
| US United States | — | 384,257 | 1 in 866 | 384K | Sara | 477 |
| BR Brazil | #248 | 304,917 | 1 in 694 | 305K | Sara | 212 |
| MX Mexico | #136 | ≈230,000 est. | ≈1 in 576 | — | Sara | 238 |
| ES Spain | #57 | 179,954 | 1 in 278 | 180K | Sara | 245 |
| PT Portugal | #33 | ≈74,000 est. | ≈1 in 145 | listed | Sara | 192 |
| SE Sweden | — | 69,262 | 1 in 147 | 69K | Sara | 73 |
| SI Slovenia | — | 9,128 | 1 in 230 | 9.1K | — | 21 |
| IS Iceland | — | 1,502 | 1 in 234 | 1.5K | — | — |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); the pt-irn-lista-nomes register; SURS — resident population given names; Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Sara is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Chad/Central African Republic: used for Sara peoples speaking Bongo-Bagirmi; also a form of Sarah (Hebrew/Arabic) meaning 'princess, noble.'
as a nameAfrican Names
Japanese version of the English name DSara(h). See main dictionary.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
Gives pleasure
as a nameThe book of African names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Sarah Bernhardtb. 1844FRnot in their usual nameFrench stage actress, painter and sculptor (1844–1923)
- Muriel Sparkb. 1918GBnot in their usual nameScottish novelist and writer (1918–2006)
- Sarah Fergusonb. 1959GBnot in their usual nameBritish writer, charity patron, public speaker, film producer and television personality, and former Duchess of York
- Sarah Mullallyb. 1962GBnot in their usual name106th archbishop of Canterbury
- Sarah Palinb. 1964USnot in their usual nameGovernor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009
- Sarah Clarkeb. 1972USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Olivia Colmanb. 1974GBnot in their usual nameBritish actress
- Sarah Shahib. 1980USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and model (born 1980)
- Rachel Bilsonb. 1981USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Sarah McBrideb. 1990USnot in their usual nameAmerican human rights activist and politician (born 1990)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)176 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 88 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 384K | #120 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 305K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 303K | #96 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 234K | #221 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 180K | #44 |
| ES Spain | INE — Nombres más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 175K | #22 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 69K | #51 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 45K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 32K | — |
| SI Slovenia | SURS — resident population given names | 2025 | 9.1K | #11 |
| IS Iceland | Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry) | 2026 | 1.5K | — |
| IS Iceland | Hagstofa — population register names 2023 | 2023 | 1.4K | #15 |
Reference works 9
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary
- Ethiopian name tokens (GitHub lehagere/ethiopian-names, 40/60 condominium list)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Sara come from?
- wife of the Prophet Ibrahim and mother of the Prophet Ismail Recorded by A Dictionary of Muslim Names.
- In which country does Sara have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 427 thousand people named Sara in Italy, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled sara.
- What are other forms of the name Sara?
- In the etymology graph, Sarah, Sally and Sadie are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Sara?
- In Spanish /ˈsa.ɾa/ (Wiktionary).
- Is Sara a male or female name?
- Sara is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Brazil (IBGE, 2022), Spain (INE) and Ecuador (INEC, 2024), among others.
- How common is the name Sara?
- In the United States, the national register counted 384,257 people named Sara in 2020, about 1 in 866 residents.
- How common is Sara compared with other names?
- In Italy, Sara is the 875th most common given name of 102,667 given names recorded there.
- What does the name Sara mean?
- In English, from Hebrew Sara(h) 'princess'; first attested Sarra c1160 DC (Leicestershire)
What do you want to know about Sara?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/saraThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Sara” — the 875th most common given name in Italy. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.