Baby names starting with S: girls and boys

The most used girls' names beginning with S in 2025

S is the third most varied letter for girls, with 570 distinct names covering 16,473 babies. Its top is really one name written three ways. Sophia at 1,547, Sofia at 1,490 and Sophie at 724 are separate rows in the ONS list, and together they account for 3,761 registrations, which would place the name second in the country if the ONS grouped spellings, which it does not.

The most used boys' names beginning with S in 2025

The boys' letter is smaller at 10,392 babies across 398 names, with four inside the top 100. Sonny leads it, a twentieth-century nickname now used as a full name, followed by Sebastian and Samuel. Below them the letter carries a substantial Arabic and South Asian group, with Syed at 389, Sami at 168 and Sultan at 117.

Which S names are rising and which are falling

Climbing

Sienna gained 4 places to 15th, the only clear climber among the girls' S names, and it is 11 places higher than in 2015. Sonny gained 6 places and is up 52 since 2015, the letter's strongest long-run rise. Stanley gained 5 places and re-entered the top 100 as a new entry, though it remains 38 places below its 2015 position.

Slipping

S contains two of the sharpest declines in the girls' data. Scarlett fell 14 places in 2025 and is down 77 since 2015, the largest ten-year fall of any name in the girls' top 100, and Sophie fell 13 and is down 52, the third largest. Sofia lost 5 places and Sophia held level. Among boys, Samuel fell 6 places and is down 43 over ten years, and Sebastian lost 2.

What the published change columns cannot tell you

Sara, Safa, Sarah, Sadie, Sylvie, Syeda, Skye, Savannah, Spencer, Sidney, Sami and Seth all sit below rank 100 and have no published change figure. Sarah at 371 is a useful illustration: it was one of the most common names in Britain in the 1980s and is now outside the top 130, but the ONS 2025 tables give no movement figure to quantify that within the year.

How big a letter S really is

S is fifth for girls and twelfth for boys by babies named, but third and fifth by distinct names. It is one of the least concentrated letters on the girls' side, where Sophia takes only 9 per cent of the total, because the letter is spread across four or five separate naming traditions rather than one.

Those traditions sit side by side without overlapping. The Greek Sophia group leads; an English group runs through Scarlett, Summer, Sadie and Sylvie; a large Arabic group covers Safa at 425, Sara at 427 and Syeda at 255; and the boys' side adds a distinct set of surname names in Spencer, Sullivan and Sidney. Very few letters carry four groups this size.

Further S names in the published 2025 list

The ONS full list does not stop at the tables above, and the counts stay exact all the way down. For girls the next names in order of use are Skye at 214, Savannah at 211, Seren at 196, Stevie at 171, Sydney at 151, Skylar at 139, Selena at 134, Stella at 130, Skyla at 117, Serena at 111, Sumayyah at 110, Saoirse at 102. For boys they are Sam at 115, Solomon at 105, Saint at 98, Sulaiman at 96, Stefan at 95, Shivansh at 84, Sulayman at 80, Shay at 73, Sully at 73, Sunny at 69, Shiloh at 67, Silas at 66. Each figure is the exact number of babies registered with that exact spelling during 2025, taken from the ONS full-list table rather than from the top 100. The letter carries 570 different girls' names and 398 different boys' names in the published data altogether, and any name given to two or fewer babies has been removed from it.

Choosing a S name: what the data changes

If you like the Sophia sound, the practical question is which spelling to register, because the ONS will count it separately but nobody hearing it will. Sophia, Sofia and Sophie were given to 3,761 girls in a single year between them. If you want an S name outside that crowd, Sylvie at 270, Sadie at 367 and Seth at 156 are all well below rank 130.