Sally

Where Sally comes from

A diminutive lambdacism of Sarah. Compare Hal from Harry and Moll from Mary.
— Wiktionary's entry for Sally
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #163 among girls — 80 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1939
    Peak, #52
    4,244 babies named Sally — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1946
    Sally Field born
    American actress
  4. 1951
    Sally Ride born
    American astronaut and physicist
  5. 1966
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #179.
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Sarah, also used as a formal given name.
Namesakes
  • Sally Field · American actress, born 1946
  • Sally Ride · American astronaut and physicist, 1951–2012
  • Sally Hawkins · English actress, born 1976
  • Sally Rooney · Irish author, born 1991
  • Sally Pearson · Australian short-distance runner and hurdler, born 1986

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.