Given name & surname
Sancho
“one who is sacred”
Sancho has a medieval Spanish history and a familiar place beside Don Quixote.
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Spanish interpretation is “one who is sacred.” Its derivation is not certain.
Where it comes from
A possible origin is Spanish, although the derivation remains uncertain.
The story
Sancho Panza is Don Quixote’s companion in Cervantes’s novel. Earlier medieval records use Sancho alongside Latin Sanctius, though the direction of that linguistic relationship remains uncertain.
Sancho through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 34
- 34 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1977
- 8 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1993. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 8 in 1977. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 206 as a first name in 2020; 1,154 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Sancho’s family of names
Sancho has a feminine form in Sancha. Sancho has a related form in Sanche. Sancho has a feminine form in Sanch(i)a.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 5
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 6
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Sancho
- Sancho I of PortugalKing of Portugal (1185–1211)1154–1211
- Sancho II of PortugalKing of Portugal from 1223 to 12481207–1248
- Sancho II of Castile and LeónKing of Leon and Castile1036–1072
- Sancho III of CastileKing of Castile1134–1158
- Sancho RamírezKing of Aragon and Pamplone1045–1094
- Sancho IV of CastileKing of Castile and León from 1284 to 12951258–1295
- Sancho VI of NavarreKing of Navarre1132–1194
- Sancho I of LeónKing of León (c.932–966)935–966
- Sancho VII of NavarreKing of Navarre, last of a native dinasty1154–1234
Characters named Sancho: Sancho Panza (the novel Don Quixote).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Sancho, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Orlando
“from the renowned land”
>99% boys
Bardo
“a minstrel; a poet” · “an axe-wolf”
>99% boys
Cedrick
Cedrick is a variant of Cedric. One Welsh interpretation is “one who is kind and loved; of the spectacular bounty.”
>99% boys
Cade
“a precocious young woman” · “one who is round”
>99% boys
Orlondo
“from the renowned land”
>99% boys
Tighe
“a wise poet”
>99% boys
Bard
“a minstrel; a poet”
>99% boys
Justinn
“one who is just and upright”
>99% boys