Simeon
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "he who hears" or "he who listens".
Name Census estimates that about 7,953 living Americans carry the first name Simeon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Simeon today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Simeon births was 2019 (222 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Simeon. 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 Simeon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
8.0K
~ 1 in 43,097 Americans
Peak year
2019
222 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,142
Tracked since 1880
Census
Simeon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,170 people with the first name Simeon, which placed it at #2,833 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
#2,833
National first-name rank
People counted
8.2K
8,170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Simeon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simeon is White at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Simeon 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 Simeon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.7% · 3,408
- Black or African American32.2% · 2,630
- Hispanic or Latino12.0% · 984
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 552
- Two or more races5.8% · 474
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 122
Gender
Gender distribution for Simeon
Out of the 9,283 babies given the name Simeon 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.
Simeon as a male name
- Ranked #1,142 in 2024
- 184 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (222 births)
Simeon as a female name
- Ranked #19,181 in 2011
- 5 female births in 2011
- Peak: 1977 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Simeon leans strongly male. 8,072 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 97 female bearers (1.2%).
Popularity
Simeon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Simeon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,978 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Simeon remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Simeon 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 Simeon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Simeons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Simeon, while Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 133 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Simeon
The name Simeon has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, deriving from the Biblical Hebrew name Shim'on, which means "he has heard." This name can be traced back to ancient times, with its earliest recorded use in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, where it is given to one of the twelve sons of Jacob.
The name Simeon gained particular prominence in the Christian tradition, as it was the name of one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, known as Simon the Zealot or Simon the Canaanite. This Simeon is mentioned in the New Testament gospels as one of the disciples who followed Jesus during his ministry.
Another notable figure with the name Simeon was Simeon the God-Receiver, a devout man in Jerusalem who, according to the Gospel of Luke, was promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. He is celebrated in the Christian tradition for recognizing the infant Jesus as the Messiah when Mary and Joseph brought him to the Temple.
In the 2nd century AD, a Christian writer named Simeon of Jerusalem is believed to have been the second bishop of Jerusalem, succeeding James, the brother of Jesus. He is regarded as a martyr by the Christian church.
Simeon Stylites, also known as Simeon the Elder, was a renowned Christian ascetic and monk who lived in the 5th century AD. He is famous for living atop a pillar for 37 years, a practice known as stylitism, which attracted many followers and admirers.
In the 11th century, Simeon of Polirone was an influential Italian monk and abbot who played a significant role in the reform of monastic life in northern Italy. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Throughout history, the name Simeon has been used by various individuals, including Simeon of Bulgaria, a 10th-century Bulgarian ruler, and Simeon I of Moscow, a 15th-century Grand Prince of Moscow. These examples highlight the widespread use and adaptations of the name across different cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Simeon
People
Simeon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Simeon 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
Simeon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Simeon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,953 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Simeon 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 43,097 US residents.
Is Simeon a common name?
We classify Simeon as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,283 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Simeon most popular?
The single biggest year for Simeon was 2019, when 222 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Simeon is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Simeon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,170 people with the name Simeon, or 2.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,833 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 Simeon 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 Simeon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Simeon leans strongly male. 8,072 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 97 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Simeon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simeon is White at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Black (32.2%) and Hispanic (12.0%). 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 Simeon most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Simeon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.7% (3,408 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 Simeon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Simeon a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Simeon 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 Simeon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Simeon 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 Simeon 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 Americans are named Simeon?
See how many Americans are named Simeon on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.