Sabine
Of Latin origin meaning "a woman from the Sabine region".
Name Census estimates that about 3,163 living Americans carry the first name Sabine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Sabine today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sabine births was 2007 (108 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sabine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Sabine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 108,364 Americans
Peak year
2007
108 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,871
Tracked since 1916
Census
Sabine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,491 people with the first name Sabine, which placed it at #3,290 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,290
National first-name rank
People counted
6.5K
6,491 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sabine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sabine is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (13.8%) and Hispanic (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Sabine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Sabine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.0% · 4,672
- Black or African American13.8% · 899
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 473
- Two or more races4.5% · 292
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 146
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 9
Popularity
Sabine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sabine from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 860 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Sabine remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sabine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Sabine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sabines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Sabine, while Wisconsin, Maryland, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 95 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sabine
The name Sabine originated from the Sabines, an ancient Italic people who inhabited the central Apennine region of ancient Italy, located in what is now the regions of Lazio, Umbria, and Abruzzo. The name is believed to derive from the Sabine word "sabina," which referred to their own language or dialect. This name has been in use since ancient Roman times, dating back to the 8th century BC.
The Sabines played a significant role in Roman mythology, particularly in the legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women. According to this story, the early Romans abducted Sabine women to provide wives for their men, leading to a conflict that eventually resulted in the integration of the Sabines into Roman society.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Sabine comes from the Roman poet Ovid, who mentioned a character named Sabine in his work "Metamorphoses" (8 AD). Another early reference is found in the writings of the Roman historian Livy, who chronicled the conflict between the Romans and the Sabines.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Sabine. One of the most famous was Sabine of Bavaria (1492-1564), a German princess who married Duke Ulrich of Württemberg and played a significant role in the Reformation. Another notable Sabine was Sabine Schmitz (1969-2021), a German professional racing driver and television personality, known for her appearances on the BBC's "Top Gear."
Other notable individuals with the name Sabine include Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), an English Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, and eclectic scholar; Sabine Lisicki (born 1989), a German professional tennis player; and Sabine Schmitz (1964-2022), a German race car driver and television personality.
The name Sabine has been used throughout various cultures and time periods, reflecting its ancient Roman origins and the enduring influence of the Sabine people in history and mythology.
People
Sabine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sabine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Sabine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sabine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,163 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sabine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 108,364 US residents.
Is Sabine a common name?
We classify Sabine as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,299 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sabine most popular?
The single biggest year for Sabine was 2007, when 108 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sabine is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sabine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,491 people with the name Sabine, or 2.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,290 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Sabine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Sabine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sabine appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,490 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Sabine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sabine is White at 72.0%. The next largest groups are Black (13.8%) and Hispanic (7.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Sabine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sabine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.0% (4,672 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Sabine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sabine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sabine in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Sabine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sabine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Sabine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Sabine?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.