Sierra is the Spanish word for a "mountain range", literally a "saw", after the jagged outline of peaks against the sky; the Sierra Nevada of California gave the word a strong American flavor. It became a girls' name in the 1980s, when nature and place names like Savannah and Dakota took off. Sierra ranked number 53 in 2000, its best year in this century, and has slipped steadily to number 616 in 2025.