Salem
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "peace" or "safety".
Name Census estimates that about 9,863 living Americans carry the first name Salem. It sits at #430 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Salem today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Salem births was 2023 (1,174 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Salem. 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 Salem with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Salem sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Salem is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
9.9K
~ 1 in 34,752 Americans
Peak year
2023
1,174 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#430
Tracked since 1912
Census
Salem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,606 people with the first name Salem, which placed it at #3,641 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
#3,641
National first-name rank
People counted
5.6K
5,606 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Salem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Salem is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Salem 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 Salem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.3% · 3,828
- Hispanic or Latino11.4% · 640
- Black or African American11.0% · 618
- Two or more races6.4% · 357
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 128
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Salem
Salem is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 10,058 total registrations, 4,284 (42.6%) were male and 5,774 (57.4%) were female.
Salem as a male name
- Ranked #634 in 2024
- 440 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (440 births)
Salem as a female name
- Ranked #430 in 2024
- 715 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (734 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Salem on both sides of the split. Of the 5,605 people counted with this name, 2,969 were male (53.0%) and 2,636 were female (47.0%).
Popularity
Salem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Salem from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 5,172 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Salem 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 Salem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Salems live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Salem, while New Hampshire, North Dakota, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 162 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Salem
The name Salem traces its origins to the Hebrew Shalom, meaning "peace." It has been in use since ancient times in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. The earliest recorded instance of the name is found in the Bible, where Salem is mentioned as an early name for Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament, Salem is referenced in Genesis 14:18 as the city ruled by Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High. This biblical association has given the name a religious significance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Salem is also mentioned in Psalm 76:2, where it is described as the location of God's tabernacle.
The name gained popularity during the medieval period, particularly among Jewish and Arabic communities. One notable bearer of the name was Salem Ibn Abdallah, a renowned 9th-century Islamic mathematician and astronomer from Baghdad. In the 11th century, a Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, also went by the name Salem.
During the Renaissance, the name was adopted by some European Christians, often as a variant of the name Solomon or as a tribute to the biblical city of Jerusalem. One of the earliest recorded Europeans with this name was Salem Andreae, a 16th-century German philosopher and theologian.
In the 17th century, the Puritan settlers of New England founded the town of Salem, Massachusetts, which derived its name from the Hebrew word Shalom, reflecting their desire for a peaceful settlement. This connection to the founding of Salem, Massachusetts, further contributed to the name's popularity in the English-speaking world.
Notable historical figures named Salem include Salem Poor, an African American soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and Salem Witch Trials judge Samuel Sewall, who later expressed regret for his role in the infamous trials.
People
Salem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Salem 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
Salem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Salem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,863 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Salem 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 34,752 US residents.
Is Salem a common name?
We classify Salem as "Rare". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,058 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Salem most popular?
The single biggest year for Salem was 2023, when 1,174 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Salem is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Salem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,606 people with the name Salem, or 1.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,641 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 Salem 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 Salem?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Salem on both sides of the split. Of the 5,605 people counted with this name, 2,969 were male (53.0%) and 2,636 were female (47.0%). 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 Salem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Salem is White at 68.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.4%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Salem most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Salem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.3% (3,828 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 Salem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Salem a female name?
Yes, 57.4% of people registered as Salem 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 Salem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Salem 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 Salem 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 Salem?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.