Sinclair
A masculine name derived from the Old French phrase "Saint Clair", meaning "holy light".
Name Census estimates that about 1,277 living Americans carry the first name Sinclair. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Sinclair today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sinclair births was 2024 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sinclair. 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 Sinclair with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 268,406 Americans
Peak year
2024
41 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,857
Tracked since 1900
Census
Sinclair in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,241 people with the first name Sinclair, which placed it at #10,643 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
#10,643
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,241 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
49.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sinclair
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sinclair is Black at 49.0%. The next largest groups are White (33.2%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Sinclair 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 Sinclair at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American49.0% · 608
- White33.2% · 412
- Hispanic or Latino6.2% · 77
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 71
- Two or more races5.4% · 67
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Sinclair
Sinclair is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,869 total registrations, 1,421 (76.0%) were male and 448 (24.0%) were female.
Sinclair as a male name
- Ranked #6,755 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (29 births)
Sinclair as a female name
- Ranked #4,857 in 2024
- 28 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sinclair on both sides of the split. Of the 1,242 people counted with this name, 818 were male (65.9%) and 424 were female (34.1%).
Popularity
Sinclair: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sinclair from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 221 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Sinclair remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sinclair 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 Sinclair during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sinclairs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. South Carolina, New York, Florida recorded the most babies named Sinclair, while North Carolina, Georgia, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Sinclair
The name Sinclair has its origins in the Old French language, stemming from the words "saint" meaning holy or sacred, and "clair" meaning clear or bright. It likely emerged in the Middle Ages as a descriptive name referring to someone who lived near a place of religious significance or a holy spring.
In the 12th century, the name was first recorded as a surname in Scotland, where it was Anglicized from the Old French "Saint-Clair". This surname was borne by a prominent Scottish noble family who held lands in the region of West Lothian.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Sinclair was Sinclair of Roslin (c. 1180 - 1244), a Scottish nobleman and builder of Roslin Chapel, known for its intricate carvings and architectural marvels.
In the realm of literature, the name Sinclair appears in the 14th-century poetic work "The Kingis Quair" by James I of Scotland, where he refers to a character named "Fair Sinclair".
During the Renaissance period, Sinclair Trimborn (1492 - 1560) was a German humanist scholar and theologian who played a significant role in the Reformation movement.
In the 18th century, Sinclair Lewis (1885 - 1951) was an American novelist and the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1930. His notable works include "Main Street", "Babbitt", and "Arrowsmith".
Another prominent figure was Sinclair Beiles (1930 - 2000), a South African writer, academic, and anti-apartheid activist who campaigned for civil rights and racial equality through his literary works and teachings.
Sinclair Ferguson (born 1948) is a Scottish theologian and author, known for his contributions to Reformed theology and his numerous books on Christian doctrine and practice.
These examples illustrate the rich history and diverse cultural contexts in which the name Sinclair has been used, highlighting its enduring presence across various eras and disciplines.
People
Sinclair + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sinclair 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
Sinclair: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sinclair?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sinclair 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 268,406 US residents.
Is Sinclair a common name?
We classify Sinclair as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,869 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sinclair most popular?
The single biggest year for Sinclair was 2024, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sinclair is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sinclair in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,241 people with the name Sinclair, or 0.41 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,643 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 Sinclair 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 Sinclair?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Sinclair on both sides of the split. Of the 1,242 people counted with this name, 818 were male (65.9%) and 424 were female (34.1%). 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 Sinclair?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sinclair is Black at 49.0%. The next largest groups are White (33.2%) and Hispanic (6.2%). 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 Sinclair most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Sinclair in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.0% (608 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 Sinclair in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sinclair a male name?
Yes, 76.0% of people registered as Sinclair 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 Sinclair still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sinclair 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 Sinclair 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 the name Sinclair?
Find out how many people share the name Sinclair on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.