Salah
A masculine Arabic name meaning "pious" or "devout".
Name Census estimates that about 1,111 living Americans carry the first name Salah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 84.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Salah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Salah births was 2024 (62 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Salah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Salah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 308,510 Americans
Peak year
2024
62 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,497
Tracked since 1972
Gender
Gender distribution for Salah
Salah leans heavily male at 84.6% of total registrations, but 173 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Salah as a male name
- Ranked #3,497 in 2024
- 33 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (49 births)
Salah as a female name
- Ranked #4,743 in 2024
- 29 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (29 births)
Popularity
Salah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Salah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 340 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Salah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Salah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Salah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Salahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, Minnesota, Texas recorded the most babies named Salah, while Ohio, Michigan, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Salah
The name Salah originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the word "salah" which means prayer or supplication in Arabic. The name is believed to have first emerged in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East region during the early days of Islam, around the 7th century AD.
The name Salah holds significant religious and cultural significance in the Islamic faith. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and refers to the obligatory daily prayers that Muslims perform five times a day, facing the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. The name is closely associated with the principles of devotion, obedience, and submission to God.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Salah can be found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. The word "salah" appears numerous times in the Quran, emphasizing the importance of prayer in the Islamic faith. Additionally, the name is found in various historical Islamic texts and records, reflecting its widespread use among Arab and Muslim communities.
Throughout history, several prominent figures have borne the name Salah. One of the most notable is Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, also known as Saladin (1137-1193), a Kurdish Muslim sultan who led the Muslim forces during the Crusades and recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. His military prowess and chivalry made him a legendary figure in both Muslim and Christian histories.
Another famous bearer of the name Salah was Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (1138-1193), a Kurdish military leader and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. He was a contemporary of Saladin and played a significant role in the battles against the Crusaders.
In the 13th century, Salah al-Din Khalil ibn Aybak al-Tawil (1240-1249) was a Kurdish sultan of Egypt and the founder of the Bahri Mamluk dynasty. He is known for his successful military campaigns against the Crusaders and for his efforts in strengthening the Mamluk Sultanate.
More recently, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury (born 1962) is a Bangladeshi writer, journalist, and human rights activist who has advocated for interfaith harmony and religious freedom in his country.
Salah Abdeslam (born 1989) is a French national of Moroccan descent who was convicted for his involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks, which were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 130 people.
People
Salah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Salah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Salah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Salah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,111 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Salah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 308,510 US residents.
Is Salah a common name?
We classify Salah as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,127 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Salah most popular?
The single biggest year for Salah was 2024, when 62 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Salah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Salah a male name?
Yes, 84.6% of people registered as Salah in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.