Salim
A masculine Arabic name meaning "peaceful" or "secure".
Name Census estimates that about 1,897 living Americans carry the first name Salim. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Salim today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Salim births was 2023 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Salim. 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 Salim with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.9K
~ 1 in 180,682 Americans
Peak year
2023
65 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,654
Tracked since 1960
Census
Salim in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,214 people with the first name Salim, which placed it at #4,437 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
#4,437
National first-name rank
People counted
4.2K
4,214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Salim
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Salim is White at 41.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.8%) and Black (20.9%). 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 Salim 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 Salim at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.3% · 1,740
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.8% · 1,131
- Black or African American20.9% · 882
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 254
- Two or more races4.8% · 201
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 6
Popularity
Salim: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Salim from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 509 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Salim remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Salim 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 Salim during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Salims live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, California, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Salim, while Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Salim
The name Salim has its origins in Arabic culture and language. It is derived from the Arabic root word "salama," which means "peace" or "safety." The name Salim is believed to have been in use as early as the 7th century AD, during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Salim can be found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. In the Quran, the name Salim is mentioned as the son of the prophet Noah. This biblical reference suggests that the name has been in use for centuries and has roots in both Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions.
Throughout history, the name Salim has been borne by various prominent figures across the Muslim world. One of the most notable individuals with this name was Salim I, the Ottoman Sultan who ruled from 1512 to 1520. During his reign, Salim I expanded the Ottoman Empire into parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
Another famous bearer of the name Salim was Salim Ali, an Indian ornithologist and naturalist who lived from 1896 to 1987. He is widely regarded as the "Bird Man of India" and made significant contributions to the study of birds and their habitats in the subcontinent.
In the field of literature, Salim was the pen name of the 19th-century Urdu poet Syed Shujaat Ali Qadri, who was born in 1838 and died in 1908. His works, which often explored themes of love and spirituality, are considered among the finest examples of Urdu poetry from that era.
The name Salim has also been borne by several rulers and nobles throughout history, such as Salim Shah Suri, the Sultan of Bengal who reigned from 1459 to 1490, and Salim Khan, the Nawab of Tonk in Rajasthan, India, who lived from 1718 to 1768.
While the name Salim has its roots in Arabic and Islamic culture, it has transcended linguistic and religious boundaries and has been adopted by various communities across the world. Its association with peace and safety has made it a popular choice for parents seeking a name with positive connotations for their children.
People
Salim + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Salim 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
Salim: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Salim?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,897 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Salim 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 180,682 US residents.
Is Salim a common name?
We classify Salim as "Rare". It ranks above 93.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,945 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Salim most popular?
The single biggest year for Salim was 2023, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Salim is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Salim in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,214 people with the name Salim, or 1.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,437 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 Salim 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 Salim?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Salim leans strongly male. 4,146 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 74 female bearers (1.8%). 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 Salim?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Salim is White at 41.3%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.8%) and Black (20.9%). 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 Salim most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Salim in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.3% (1,740 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 Salim in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Salim a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Salim 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 Salim still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Salim 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 Salim 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 common is the name Salim?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.