Salam
An Arabic name meaning peace, greeting, or salutation.
Name Census estimates that about 381 living Americans carry the first name Salam. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 67.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Salam today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Salam births was 1993 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Salam. 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.
People living today
381
~ 1 in 899,618 Americans
Peak year
1993
20 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,689
Tracked since 1985
Gender
Gender distribution for Salam
Salam is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 388 total registrations, 128 (33.0%) were male and 260 (67.0%) were female.
Salam as a male name
- Ranked #10,689 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (10 births)
Salam as a female name
- Ranked #17,190 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (15 births)
Popularity
Salam: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Salam from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 122 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Salam remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Salam 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 Salam during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Salams live
Origin
Meaning and history of Salam
The name Salam has its origins in the Arabic language and is derived from the word "salām," which means "peace" or "greetings." This name has been in use for centuries and can be traced back to the early days of Islam.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Salam can be found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. The word "salām" is mentioned numerous times, often in the context of greetings or blessings. For example, in Surah Al-Nahl, verse 32, it is stated: "Their greeting on the Day they meet Him will be 'Salām' (Peace)."
During the medieval period, the name Salam was relatively uncommon but not unheard of. One notable figure who bore this name was Salam the Cupbearer, who lived in the 9th century CE and served as a court poet and companion to the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu'tazz.
In the 12th century, a prominent Muslim scholar and philosopher named Salam al-Din al-Ayubi, better known as Saladin, rose to power. He is renowned for his military campaigns against the Crusaders and for his chivalrous conduct on the battlefield.
Another famous bearer of the name Salam was the 16th-century Ottoman architect and engineer Mimar Sinan, whose full name was Sinan bin Abdulmennan, but he was often referred to as Salam. He was responsible for the construction of numerous mosques, bridges, and other architectural masterpieces throughout the Ottoman Empire.
In the 19th century, a renowned Algerian scholar and Sufi mystic named Salam Ibn Mashish gained recognition for his teachings and writings on Islamic spirituality and philosophy. He was born in 1825 and passed away in 1893.
The name Salam has also been used by other notable figures throughout history, such as Salam Shashangin, a 12th-century Persian poet and calligrapher, and Salam Abdel Salam, an Egyptian lawyer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Egypt in the 1940s.
People
Salam + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Salam 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
Salam: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Salam?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 381 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Salam 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 899,618 US residents.
Is Salam a common name?
We classify Salam as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 388 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Salam most popular?
The single biggest year for Salam was 1993, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Salam is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Salam a female name?
Yes, 67.0% of people registered as Salam in the SSA data are female. 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.