Simone
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "she who listens".
Name Census estimates that about 25,114 living Americans carry the first name Simone. It is a predominantly female name (98.1% of registrations). The average person named Simone today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Simone births was 1988 (807 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Simone. 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 Simone with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Simone is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 535 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,648 Americans
Peak year
1988
807 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,040
Tracked since 1908
Census
Simone in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 30,189 people with the first name Simone, which placed it at #1,248 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
#1,248
National first-name rank
People counted
30K
30,189 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
40.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Simone
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simone is Black at 40.5%. The next largest groups are White (40.0%) and Two or More Races (8.6%). 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 Simone 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 Simone at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American40.5% · 12,228
- White40.0% · 12,084
- Two or more races8.6% · 2,595
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 2,164
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 914
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 204
Gender
Gender distribution for Simone
Simone leans heavily female at 98.1% of total registrations, but 535 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Simone as a male name
- Ranked #12,100 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1989 (20 births)
Simone as a female name
- Ranked #1,040 in 2024
- 241 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1988 (797 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Simone leans strongly female. 29,083 people counted with this name were female (96.3%), compared with 1,107 male bearers (3.7%).
Popularity
Simone: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Simone from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,921 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Simone 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 Simone during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Simones live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Simone, while Nebraska, Hawaii, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 528 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Simone
The name Simone is a French given name derived from the ancient Hebrew name Shimon. Shimon itself was derived from the Hebrew verb shama, meaning "to hear" or "to listen". The name Simone is the French feminine form of the masculine name Simon.
In ancient times, the name Simon was borne by one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. Simon Peter, also known as Saint Peter, was one of the most important figures in early Christianity. Another significant figure was Simon the Zealot, also one of the twelve apostles.
The name Simone gained popularity in France during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was Simone de Beauvoir, a French philosopher, writer, and feminist born in 1908. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
Another notable historical figure with the name Simone was Simone Weil, a French philosopher, and mystic who lived from 1909 to 1943. She was deeply influenced by her studies of religion and advocated for non-violence and social justice.
In the realm of music, Simone Signoret was a French actress who won an Academy Award for her performance in the film Room at the Top in 1959. She was also a prominent figure in the French Resistance during World War II.
Simone de Camargo was a renowned French ballerina who lived from 1888 to 1965. She is considered one of the greatest dancers of the early 20th century and helped revolutionize ballet technique.
Simone Veil, a French politician and Holocaust survivor, was a prominent figure in the 20th century. Born in 1927, she served as the Minister of Health in France and played a vital role in legalizing abortion in the country in 1975.
The name Simone has a rich history and cultural significance, spanning various fields, including philosophy, literature, arts, and politics. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Hebrew, and it has been borne by many influential figures throughout history.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Simone
People
Simone + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Simone 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
Simone: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Simone?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25,114 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Simone 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 13,648 US residents.
Is Simone a common name?
We classify Simone as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 27,806 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Simone most popular?
The single biggest year for Simone was 1988, when 807 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Simone is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Simone in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 30,189 people with the name Simone, or 10.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,248 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 Simone 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 Simone?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Simone leans strongly female. 29,083 people counted with this name were female (96.3%), compared with 1,107 male bearers (3.7%). 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 Simone?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Simone is Black at 40.5%. The next largest groups are White (40.0%) and Two or More Races (8.6%). 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 Simone most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Simone in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.5% (12,228 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 Simone in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Simone a female name?
Yes, 98.1% of people registered as Simone 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 Simone still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Simone 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 Simone 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 have the name Simone?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Simone, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.