Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Sanford was most popular in 1929, when 315 American babies were given the name — ranking #680 that year. In 2025 it ranked #14,309, with 12 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 15,044 people named Sanford.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Sanford is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 146 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 15,044 American births named Sanford between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 5,575 are estimated to be alive today.
12 American babies were named Sanford in 2025, ranking #14,309 that year.
Sanford is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 13 births a year across 2021–2025 against 10 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Sanford is a boy’s name — 0.0% of the 15,044 Americans given it were girls and 100.0% were boys. In births since 2016 it is 0% girls and 100% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 5,575 Americans named Sanford are alive today — 37% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 68 years old, and half are between 56 and 78.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Sanford on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org