girl's name
Sabrina
suh-BREE-nuh
- Origin Latin
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 258,322
the United States
#321
2025 births
Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit. It charts in five markets and peaked in 1997.
- Sabrina is a name of Latin origin.
- Peaked in 1997, when 5,823 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 3,468 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1916.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Sabrina over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 11 |
| 1930s | 6 |
| 1940s | 41 |
| 1950s | 4,911 |
| 1960s | 12,485 |
| 1970s | 24,599 |
| 1980s | 24,750 |
| 1990s | 38,747 |
| 2000s | 22,372 |
| 2010s | 10,067 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 4,959 |
What Sabrina means
Sabrina means of the River Severn. The river's name is pre-Roman and its own meaning is lost, so the name records a place rather than describing anyone.
Where Sabrina comes from
Sabrina is the Latin name of the Severn, Britain's longest river, and the word is pre-Roman with no recovered meaning. Geoffrey of Monmouth supplies the legend: Habren, the illegitimate daughter of a British king, is drowned in the river on the queen's orders, and the river is named for her. Milton retells it in Comus in 1634, where Sabrina has become the river's guardian nymph, and it is Milton rather than Geoffrey who carried the name into English use. The 1954 film Sabrina and its 1995 remake account for its late twentieth-century rise.
Sabrina in use
Sabrina peaked in the United States in 1997, when 5,823 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 321st in the United States on 956 births, 414th in England and Wales on 98, 448th in Scotland, 456th in Ireland and 1394th in France, across 258,322 lifetime births in six of the seven markets we track. Four of those five place it within roughly 140 places of each other.
How popular is Sabrina?
In 2025, Sabrina was given to 956 babies in the United States, ranking #321 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Sabrina is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Sabrina
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Sabrina also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Sabrina over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Sabrina
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Sabrina in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Sabrina
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Sabrina — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Sabrina
What does the name Sabrina mean?
Of the River Severn — the river's name is pre-Roman and its own meaning is lost.
What is the legend of Sabrina?
Geoffrey of Monmouth tells of a king's illegitimate daughter drowned in the river, which then took her name.
Is Sabrina from Milton?
Milton's Comus of 1634 made her the river's guardian nymph, and it is his version that carried the name into English use.
How popular is Sabrina?
321st in the United States, and it charts in five of the six markets we track.
Is Sabrina a girl's or a boy's name?
Sabrina is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Sabrina?
Sabrina has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Sabrina?
Sabrina is usually shortened to Bri and Brina.
Is Sabrina a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Sabrina currently ranks #321 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.