NameRealm
Sailor

Sailor: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“sailor, seaman”
Origin
English
Say it
SAY-ler · 2 syllables
Used for
Girls (84% of all uses)

Modern use of the English occupational word sailor as a given name. It belongs to the surname-style and word-name trend rather than to an older traditional given-name line.

English namesAmerican namesNames meaning seaNames meaning waterModern namesSurname-style names

How popular is Sailor?

202466.0 per million US babies
1880192019602000
Drag the line or the slider to read any year. Values are per million US births recorded by Social Security. Records before about 1937 undercount births, so early peaks can look taller than they were.

Babies named Sailor in 2024218

2024 rank#1,340 girls

Peak year2016

Total US babies since 18804,042

Sailor is rising: use over the last five years is 1.8× what it was a decade earlier.

Names like Sailor

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

  • Oliviaolive tree · English
  • Evelyndesired; little bird · English
  • Harperharp player · English
  • Violetviolet flower · English
  • Hazelhazel tree · English
  • Ellieshort form of names ending in -el or -ella · English
  • Lilylily flower · English
  • Scarlettscarlet, bright red · English

Sailor questions

What does the name Sailor mean?

Sailor means "sailor, seaman". It comes from English. Modern use of the English occupational word sailor as a given name. It belongs to the surname-style and word-name trend rather than to an older traditional given-name line.

Is Sailor a boy or girl name?

Sailor is mainly a girl's name in US records (84% of uses since 1880).

How popular is Sailor?

218 US babies were named Sailor in 2024. Its peak year was 2016.

How do you pronounce Sailor?

Sailor is usually pronounced SAY-ler.

Birth counts: US Social Security Administration national data, 1880–2024 (names given to 5+ babies of a sex in a year). How we write meanings.