Saige
A feminine name of Old French origin meaning "wise one".
Name Census estimates that about 12,433 living Americans carry the first name Saige. It sits at #448 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (91.3% of registrations). The average person named Saige today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Saige births was 2022 (855 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Saige. 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 Saige with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Saige is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 27,568 Americans
Peak year
2022
855 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#448
Tracked since 1984
Census
Saige in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,840 people with the first name Saige, which placed it at #2,908 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
#2,908
National first-name rank
People counted
7.8K
7,840 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Saige
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saige is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Saige 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 Saige at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.4% · 4,890
- Black or African American17.0% · 1,336
- Hispanic or Latino9.7% · 761
- Two or more races7.7% · 607
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 139
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 107
Gender
Gender distribution for Saige
Saige leans heavily female at 91.3% of total registrations, but 1,097 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Saige as a male name
- Ranked #2,298 in 2024
- 62 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (68 births)
Saige as a female name
- Ranked #448 in 2024
- 696 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (791 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Saige leans strongly female. 7,177 people counted with this name were female (91.6%), compared with 658 male bearers (8.4%).
Popularity
Saige: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Saige from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 4,295 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Saige 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 Saige during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Saiges live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Saige, while Delaware, Maine, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 225 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Saige
The name Saige is believed to have originated from the Old French word "sage," which means wise or knowledgeable. This name has its roots in the Latin word "sapiens," meaning wise or discerning. The earliest recorded use of the name Saige can be traced back to the Middle Ages in France and England.
During the medieval period, the name Saige was often given to scholars, philosophers, and intellectuals who were revered for their wisdom and knowledge. It was also sometimes used as a surname for families associated with academic or literary pursuits.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Saige was a 12th-century French philosopher and theologian, Pierre Abélard (1079-1142). He was known for his teachings on logic and his tragic love story with Héloïse d'Argenteuil.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Saige de Valenciennes (birth and death dates unknown) was a French poet and trouvère (a composer and poet of chansons and lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages).
During the Renaissance period, a French philosopher and humanist named Saige de la Boétie (1530-1563) gained recognition for his moral and political treatise, "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude," which criticized tyranny and advocated for individual liberty.
In the 17th century, an English playwright and poet named Saige Philips (1625-1696) was known for her translations of French tragedies and her own original plays, including "Pompey" and "Horace."
Another notable bearer of the name was Saige de Sévigné (1626-1696), a French aristocrat and writer who is remembered for her prolific letter-writing and her vivid descriptions of life in 17th-century French society.
While the name Saige has its origins in the Old French and Latin languages, it has gained popularity in modern times as a unisex name, often associated with qualities such as wisdom, intelligence, and discernment.
People
Saige + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Saige 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
Saige: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Saige?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,433 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Saige 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 27,568 US residents.
Is Saige a common name?
We classify Saige as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,573 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Saige most popular?
The single biggest year for Saige was 2022, when 855 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Saige is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Saige in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,840 people with the name Saige, or 2.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,908 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 Saige 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 Saige?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Saige leans strongly female. 7,177 people counted with this name were female (91.6%), compared with 658 male bearers (8.4%). 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 Saige?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saige is White at 62.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Hispanic (9.7%). 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 Saige most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Saige in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.4% (4,890 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 Saige in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Saige a female name?
Yes, 91.3% of people registered as Saige 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 Saige still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Saige 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 Saige 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 named Saige?
Find out how many people share the name Saige on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.