Simmon
Of Hebrew origin, meaning "He who hears, listens, or obeys".
Name Census estimates that about 24 living Americans carry the first name Simmon. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Simmon today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Simmon births was 1990 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Simmon. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Simmon. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
24
~ 1 in 14,281,431 Americans
Peak year
1990
8 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2022 SSA rank
#14,030
Tracked since 1930
Census
Simmon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 201 people with the first name Simmon, which placed it at #38,294 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
#38,294
National first-name rank
People counted
201
201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
28.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Simmon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simmon is Black at 28.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.4%) and White (21.4%). 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 Simmon 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 Simmon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American28.9% · 58
- Asian and Pacific Islander23.4% · 47
- White21.4% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino19.9% · 40
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.5% · 9
- Two or more races2.0% · 4
Popularity
Simmon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Simmon from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Simmon remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Simmon 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 Simmon 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 Simmon
The first name Simmon is of English origin, derived from the Hebrew name Simon, which means "he has heard" or "he has listened." The name Simon itself is derived from the Hebrew word "shama," meaning "to hear" or "to listen." This name was popular among early Christians, who associated it with Simon Peter, one of the Apostles of Jesus Christ.
In the Bible, Simon Peter was a fisherman from Bethsaida, who later became one of the closest disciples of Jesus. He is known for his devotion, but also for his impulsive nature and occasional lack of faith. The name Simon or Simmon became popular among early Christians as a way to honor the Apostle and his unwavering commitment to the faith.
The name Simmon first appeared in England during the Middle Ages, as a variation of the more common Simon. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Simmon can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where a landowner named Simmon is mentioned.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the first name Simmon. One of the earliest was Simmon de Montfort (c. 1160 – 1218), a French nobleman and military leader who played a significant role in the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France.
Another notable Simmon was Simmon Sudbury (c. 1316 – 1381), an English clergyman who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1375 until his execution during the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
In the 17th century, Simmon Bradstreet (1604 – 1697) was an early American poet and the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He is considered one of the first significant literary figures in the American colonies.
Simmon Newcomb (1835 – 1909) was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician who made important contributions to the field of celestial mechanics and the study of the motions of the planets.
Finally, Simmon Wiesenthal (1908 – 2005) was an Austrian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter who dedicated his life to tracking down and bringing to justice former Nazi officials who had participated in the Holocaust.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the first name Simmon, a name with deep roots in both religious and cultural traditions.
People
Simmon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Simmon 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
Simmon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Simmon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Simmon 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 14,281,431 US residents.
Is Simmon a common name?
We classify Simmon as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Simmon most popular?
The single biggest year for Simmon was 1990, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Simmon is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Simmon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 201 people with the name Simmon, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,294 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 Simmon 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 Simmon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Simmon leans strongly male. 182 people counted with this name were male (90.1%), compared with 20 female bearers (9.9%). 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 Simmon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simmon is Black at 28.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.4%) and White (21.4%). 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 Simmon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Simmon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 28.9% (58 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 Simmon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Simmon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Simmon 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 Simmon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Simmon 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 Simmon 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 Simmon?
You can see how many Americans are named Simmon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.