Sara
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name, recently also spelled Sarah. Vulgate Latin Sara, from Hebrew. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1464.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Sara (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Sara has been fairly steady over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2000. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 609 |
| 1999 | 594 |
| 2000 | 620 |
| 2001 | 542 |
| 2002 | 546 |
| 2003 | 469 |
| 2004 | 452 |
| 2005 | 462 |
| 2006 | 401 |
| 2007 | 384 |
| 2008 | 366 |
| 2009 | 329 |
| 2010 | 285 |
| 2011 | 254 |
| 2012 | 258 |
| 2013 | 224 |
| 2014 | 225 |
| 2015 | 202 |
| 2016 | 259 |
| 2017 | 246 |
| 2018 | 245 |
| 2019 | 249 |
| 2020 | 214 |
| 2021 | 193 |
| 2022 | 179 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 38,356 |
| 2000 | 38,661 |
| 2001 | 38,987 |
| 2002 | 39,303 |
| 2003 | 39,561 |
| 2004 | 39,847 |
| 2005 | 40,078 |
| 2006 | 40,337 |
| 2007 | 40,614 |
| 2008 | 40,857 |
| 2009 | 41,173 |
| 2010 | 41,392 |
| 2011 | 41,604 |
| 2012 | 41,888 |
| 2013 | 42,141 |
| 2014 | 42,471 |
| 2015 | 42,796 |
| 2016 | 43,323 |
| 2017 | 43,822 |
| 2018 | 44,187 |
| 2019 | 44,501 |
| 2020 | 44,668 |
Sara in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Sara.Hi! My name is Sara.
- Har du träffat Sara? Hon började jobba här i måndags.Have you met Sara? She started working here on Monday.
- Vet du om Sara kommer på festen på lördag?Do you know if Sara is coming to the party on Saturday?
- Saras mamma är lärare.Sara's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Saras mamma is Sara's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about Sara
How do you pronounce Sara in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Sara from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Sara mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name, recently also spelled Sarah. Vulgate Latin Sara, from Hebrew. First recorded as a given name in Sweden in 1464.
How popular is Sara in Sweden?
179 babies were named Sara in 2022. In 2020, 44,668 people in Sweden had Sara as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been fairly steady lately and peaked in 2000 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.