Saleema
A feminine Arabic name meaning "safe", "secure", or "peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 194 living Americans carry the first name Saleema. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Saleema today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Saleema births was 1988 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Saleema. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Saleema with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
194
~ 1 in 1,766,775 Americans
Peak year
1988
11 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2017 SSA rank
#17,995
Tracked since 1971
Census
Saleema in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 400 people with the first name Saleema, which placed it at #24,171 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,171
National first-name rank
People counted
400
400 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Saleema
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saleema is Black at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (38.5%) and White (9.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Saleema described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Saleema at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.5% · 182
- Asian and Pacific Islander38.5% · 154
- White9.0% · 36
- Two or more races5.3% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Saleema: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Saleema from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 50 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Saleema remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Saleema 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 Saleema during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Saleema
The given name Saleema has its origins in the Arabic language. It is derived from the Arabic root word "salima," which means "to be safe" or "to be unharmed." The name is believed to have originated in the Middle East, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula, during the early Islamic era.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Saleema can be found in historical Islamic texts and literature. It was a name given to girls born during times of peace and harmony, symbolizing the parents' hope for their daughter to live a safe and protected life.
Historically, the name Saleema has been associated with notable figures in the Islamic world. One such figure was Saleema bint Yazid al-Kalbi, a renowned female poet and scholar who lived in the 8th century CE in present-day Iraq. She was known for her contributions to Arabic literature and her expertise in genealogy.
Another notable bearer of the name was Saleema al-Samaani, a 10th-century Islamic scholar and lexicographer from Merv, a city in modern-day Turkmenistan. She wrote extensively on Arabic grammar and linguistics, and her works were widely studied and referenced by scholars of her time.
In the 12th century, there was Saleema bint Muhammed al-Muqri, a renowned Islamic scholar and teacher from Damascus, Syria. She was widely respected for her knowledge of the Quran and Islamic jurisprudence, and she taught many students who went on to become prominent scholars in their own right.
During the 14th century, a woman named Saleema al-Andalusiyya was a prominent figure in the Islamic intellectual circles of Andalusia (modern-day Spain). She was a respected poet, scholar, and calligrapher, and her works were widely admired for their elegance and erudition.
In the 16th century, Saleema Begum was a powerful and influential woman in the Mughal Empire of South Asia. She was the wife of the Mughal Emperor Akbar and played a significant role in the political and cultural affairs of the empire during her husband's reign.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Saleema. The name has continued to be used across various cultures and regions influenced by the Arabic language and Islamic traditions.
People
Saleema + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Saleema 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
Saleema: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Saleema?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 194 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Saleema 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 1,766,775 US residents.
Is Saleema a common name?
We classify Saleema as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 202 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Saleema most popular?
The single biggest year for Saleema was 1988, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Saleema is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Saleema in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 400 people with the name Saleema, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,171 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Saleema in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Saleema?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Saleema leans strongly female. 395 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 6 male bearers (1.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Saleema?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saleema is Black at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (38.5%) and White (9.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Saleema most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Saleema in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.5% (182 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Saleema in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Saleema a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Saleema 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.
Is Saleema still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Saleema in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Saleema can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
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.
How many people share the name Saleema?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.