Saleh
An Arabic name meaning righteous, pious, or virtuous.
Name Census estimates that about 1,701 living Americans carry the first name Saleh. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Saleh today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Saleh births was 2018 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Saleh. 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 Saleh with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Saleh 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
1.7K
~ 1 in 201,502 Americans
Peak year
2018
83 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,960
Tracked since 1974
Census
Saleh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,311 people with the first name Saleh, which placed it at #5,246 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
#5,246
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,311 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Saleh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saleh is White at 70.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.3%) and Two or More Races (9.2%). 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 Saleh 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 Saleh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.5% · 2,334
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.3% · 340
- Two or more races9.2% · 303
- Black or African American8.2% · 273
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Saleh
Out of the 1,726 babies given the name Saleh since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Saleh as a male name
- Ranked #1,960 in 2024
- 80 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (83 births)
Saleh as a female name
- Ranked #14,992 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Saleh leans strongly male. 3,242 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 66 female bearers (2.0%).
Popularity
Saleh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Saleh 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 591 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Saleh remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Saleh 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 Saleh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Salehs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Saleh, while Ohio, Florida, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 73 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Saleh
The name Saleh has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "salih," which means "pious," "righteous," or "virtuous." The name is closely associated with the concept of living a life in accordance with religious and moral principles.
The name Saleh can be traced back to early Islamic texts and historical records. In the Quran, the holy book of Islam, Saleh is mentioned as one of the prophets sent by God to guide the people of Thamud, an ancient Arab tribe. The story of Prophet Saleh and his people is recounted in several chapters of the Quran, highlighting his efforts to preach monotheism and warn against idolatry.
One of the earliest recorded individuals bearing the name Saleh was Saleh ibn Abd al-Quddus al-Baghdadi, a renowned Muslim scholar and jurist who lived in Baghdad during the 9th century CE. He was known for his expertise in Islamic law and his contributions to the field of hadith (sayings and traditions of Prophet Muhammad).
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who carried the name Saleh. Saleh ibn Mirdas al-Sulami, a companion of Prophet Muhammad, was known for his bravery and participation in various battles during the early Islamic era. Saleh ibn Nasr, a 9th-century Arab mathematician and astronomer, made significant contributions to the development of trigonometry and the study of celestial bodies.
In the modern era, Saleh bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who lived from 1876 to 1876, was a prominent member of the Saudi royal family and served as the ruler of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for a brief period in the late 19th century. Saleh Kamel, an Egyptian businessman and billionaire, is another well-known figure who has made a significant impact in the business world.
Saleh Ali Saleh, a former President of Yemen who ruled from 1990 to 2011, is perhaps one of the most recognizable individuals with this name in recent times. Despite his controversial tenure, he played a significant role in shaping the political landscape of Yemen during his time in power.
People
Saleh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Saleh 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
Saleh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Saleh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,701 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Saleh 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 201,502 US residents.
Is Saleh a common name?
We classify Saleh as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,726 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Saleh most popular?
The single biggest year for Saleh was 2018, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Saleh is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Saleh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,311 people with the name Saleh, or 1.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,246 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 Saleh 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 Saleh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Saleh leans strongly male. 3,242 people counted with this name were male (98.0%), compared with 66 female bearers (2.0%). 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 Saleh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Saleh is White at 70.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (10.3%) and Two or More Races (9.2%). 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 Saleh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Saleh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.5% (2,334 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 Saleh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Saleh a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Saleh 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.
Is Saleh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Saleh 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 Saleh 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 are called Saleh?
You can see how many people share the name Saleh on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.