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Santa

#8,265 in 2025Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Santa has been given to 4,410 babies in the U.S. since 1896. In 2025 it ranked #8,265 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1923, with 89 recorded.

Babies named Santa, 2025

1 in 255,000

Santa over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Santa: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Italian

What Santa means

Santa has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: “holy”.

The naming story behind Santa

A separate documented entry treats Santa as a feminine form of Santo. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

One of the source’s documented entries for Santa records a meaning of holy, saint.

Origin, language, and formation

Santa is used in English and Latvian. Its origins include Italian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Sandra.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Santa is pronounced /ˈsæntə/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,370 girls were recorded with the name Santa between 1896 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 89 in 1923; its best national rank was #723 in 1915.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #10,945 in 2020 to #8,265 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #10,036 in 2015 to #8,265 in 2025.

In the United States, 40 boys were recorded with the name Santa between 1913 and 1979. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1926; its best national rank was #3,097 in 1926.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Santa?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 255,000
13 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 124,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#8,265
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
176,762 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Santa sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 176,762 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Santa. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Santas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Santa was born before 1949 — so the typical Santa is around 76 today.

Median birth year
1949
About 76 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,145
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.8% of all recorded uses (735).

Is Santa rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,846
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,680
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,771
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.18×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.6%
Peak was 1923 (89)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
37.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#723
1915

Spellings of Santa

Santa is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 22.3% against Santa's 0.11%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Santa is used

Across 1910–2025, Santa was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 10,000 girls, against 1 in 28,092 across all states with data. It was least common in Louisiana (1 in —).

010 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 10,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 20,000
  3. 3Massachusetts1 in 50,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 50,000
  5. 5California1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in 100,000
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  8. 8Connecticut1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Santa has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Santa around the world

Where Santa ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2007–2016
    #5,785
    in 2016
  • France
    1907–2025
    #2,695
    in 2025
  • South Australia
    1944–1974
    #683
    in 1974

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Santa

People whose public names include Santa, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Santa by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,265
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,680
Best rank ever
#723
1915
Peak year
1923
89 that year
First recorded
1896
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,370
Count in 2025
13

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,097
1926
Peak year
1926
9 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
1979
All-time count
40
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Santa

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

SanaiSanaaSanyaSaniaSandiSanaSanviSaniyaSanayaSaniahSannaSantanaSantinaSaniyahSanamSanjanaSanSantosSandieFantaSanaeSandySansaSandee

Names with a curve like Santa

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Santa, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MarcelleConcepcionVitaDelfinaAlethaEdwardElizebethRaymondLorenzaOneidaCarmelHerminia

Sibling names for Santa

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Santa

Top names of 1923, Santa's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1915Girls' names starting with SLatvian Girl Names