Sergei
A masculine Russian name derived from the Latin Sergius, meaning "attendant" or "servant".
Name Census estimates that about 339 living Americans carry the first name Sergei. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sergei today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sergei births was 1998 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sergei. 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 Sergei with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
339
~ 1 in 1,011,075 Americans
Peak year
1998
16 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,544
Tracked since 1925
Census
Sergei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,020 people with the first name Sergei, which placed it at #5,612 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
#5,612
National first-name rank
People counted
3.0K
3,020 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sergei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sergei is White at 94.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.6%) and Two or More Races (1.5%). 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 Sergei 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 Sergei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.0% · 2,838
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 79
- Two or more races1.5% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 34
- Black or African American0.7% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 4
Popularity
Sergei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sergei from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 86 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sergei 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 Sergei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sergei
The given name Sergei has its origins in the Latin language, derived from the Roman name Sergius. The name Sergius itself is believed to have originated from the Latin word "serrare," meaning "to guard" or "to protect."
In ancient Rome, the name Sergius was a prominent patrician family name, and several notable individuals bore this name throughout Roman history. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sergei can be found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Roman consul named Sergius Fidenas in the 5th century BC.
As Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, the name Sergius gained popularity among early Christian communities. In the New Testament, there is a reference to a Roman proconsul named Sergius Paulus, who is said to have converted to Christianity after witnessing a miracle performed by the apostle Paul.
The name Sergei gained widespread use in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and other Slavic countries, where it was adapted from the Latin Sergius to its Slavic form, Sergei. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Sergei in Russian history is the 11th-century Grand Prince of Kiev, Sergei Radonezhsky (1314-1392), who is revered as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Throughout Russian history, several notable figures bore the name Sergei, including Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), the renowned Russian composer and pianist; Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948), the pioneering Soviet filmmaker; and Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), another celebrated Russian composer.
Other famous individuals named Sergei include Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), the Russian art critic and impresario who founded the Ballets Russes; Sergei Korolev (1907-1966), the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer during the Space Race; and Sergei Bubka (born 1963), the Ukrainian pole vaulter and former world record holder.
The name Sergei has also been borne by several Russian monarchs and members of the imperial Romanov dynasty, including Tsar Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905), the fifth child of Alexander II, and Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich (1869-1918), who was executed during the Russian Revolution.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Sergei
People
Sergei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sergei 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
Sergei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sergei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 339 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sergei 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 1,011,075 US residents.
Is Sergei a common name?
We classify Sergei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 371 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sergei most popular?
The single biggest year for Sergei was 1998, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sergei is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sergei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,020 people with the name Sergei, or 1.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,612 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 Sergei 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 Sergei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sergei appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,012 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Sergei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sergei is White at 94.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.6%) and Two or More Races (1.5%). 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 Sergei most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sergei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.0% (2,838 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 Sergei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sergei a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sergei in the SSA data are male. 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 Sergei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sergei 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 Sergei 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 have Sergei as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Sergei on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.