Humanverse

Sabel vs Sabra

American parents have registered 4,960 Sabras since 1880, against 100 Sabels. Sabra is still ahead, with 8 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Sabel against Sabra, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Sabel Sabra

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 137 years in which either name was published, Sabra for 136 years and Sabel for 1 year. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Sabel Sabra
Total US births 1004,960
Most in one year 12155
Babies in 2025 under 58
Estimated living today 1003,800
Median age today 2549
Peak year 19871961
Best rank 5,923rd girls848th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked10,917th
First recorded 19871880
Girls / boys 100 / 04,960 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Sabras alive today are over 49; half the Sabels are over 25. That is 24 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Sabel and Sabra.