Sanford is a boy name with a classic feel, drawn from real birth records. Below you'll find what Sanford means and where it comes from, plus how many babies have been named Sanford across the United States, UK, Ireland and New Zealand, how popular Sanford has been over the decades, and the year it peaked.
Sanford is a boy name of English origin meaning “sandy ford”. An English place name and surname used as a given name.
| Country | Births on record |
|---|---|
| United States since 1880 | 15,044 births |
Counts come from official national birth-registration statistics: U.S. Social Security Administration, England & Wales (Office for National Statistics), Scotland (National Records of Scotland), Northern Ireland (NISRA), Ireland (Central Statistics Office) and New Zealand (Dept. of Internal Affairs). Coverage spans differ, so totals aren't directly comparable across countries.
Babies named Sanford per year, United States (1880 to 2025). United States peaked in 1929 (315/yr).
Sanford has been a fairly common baby name in the United States. It was most common in 1929, when it ranked #680 nationally (given to 315 babies that year).
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