Sirus
The bright or scorching star, a name of Arabic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 336 living Americans carry the first name Sirus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Sirus today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Sirus births was 2020 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Sirus. 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 Sirus with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
336
~ 1 in 1,020,102 Americans
Peak year
2020
22 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,756
Tracked since 1995
Census
Sirus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 317 people with the first name Sirus, which placed it at #28,376 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
#28,376
National first-name rank
People counted
317
317 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Sirus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sirus is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Two or More Races (10.7%). 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 Sirus 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 Sirus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.9% · 174
- Hispanic or Latino13.2% · 42
- Two or more races10.7% · 34
- Black or African American9.8% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.2% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.2% · 10
Popularity
Sirus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Sirus from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 134 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Sirus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Sirus 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 Sirus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Sirus' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Sirus
The name Sirus is derived from the ancient Greek word 'Σείριος' (Seirios), which means 'scorching' or 'glowing.' It is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean region during the classical era. The name is closely associated with the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, which is part of the constellation Canis Major (the Great Dog).
In ancient Greek mythology, Sirius was known as the 'Dog Star' and was associated with the scorching heat of summer. The star's heliacal rising (its first visible appearance after a period of invisibility) marked the beginning of the hottest season, and it was considered a significant event in ancient times.
One of the earliest known references to the name Sirus can be found in the works of the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived around the 8th century BC. He mentions the star Sirius in his poem 'Works and Days,' describing its importance in agricultural cycles.
The name Sirus has been used throughout history, albeit rarely. One notable figure bearing this name was Sirus of Pavia, an Italian theologian and writer who lived in the 8th century AD. He is known for his work 'Sententiae,' which was a collection of theological and moral sayings.
Another historical figure with the name Sirus was Sirus of Genoa, a 12th-century Italian navigator and explorer. He is credited with introducing the use of the magnetic compass for navigation purposes in Europe, which helped pave the way for future maritime explorations.
In the 16th century, there was a Sirus Todus, an Italian philosopher and mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of geometry. He is best known for his work 'De Dimensione Circuli,' which explored the problem of squaring the circle.
A more recent figure with the name Sirus was Sirus Fedorov, a Russian-born American chemist who lived from 1912 to 1973. He made important contributions to the field of organic chemistry and is particularly known for his work on the synthesis of organic compounds.
It is worth noting that while the name Sirus has been used throughout history, it has never been a particularly common name in any culture or region. Its rarity may be attributed to its connection with the star Sirius and its origins in ancient Greek mythology.
People
Sirus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Sirus 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
Sirus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Sirus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 336 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Sirus 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 1,020,102 US residents.
Is Sirus a common name?
We classify Sirus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 339 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Sirus most popular?
The single biggest year for Sirus was 2020, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Sirus is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Sirus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 317 people with the name Sirus, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,376 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 Sirus 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 Sirus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Sirus leans strongly male. 314 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.6%). 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 Sirus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Sirus is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Two or More Races (10.7%). 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 Sirus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Sirus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.9% (174 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 Sirus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Sirus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Sirus 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 Sirus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Sirus 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 Sirus 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 Sirus?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.