Suleiman
A masculine Arabic name derived from "Solomon", meaning "peace" or "perfect".
Name Census estimates that about 948 living Americans carry the first name Suleiman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Suleiman today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Suleiman births was 2023 (102 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Suleiman. 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 Suleiman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
948
~ 1 in 361,555 Americans
Peak year
2023
102 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,785
Tracked since 1983
Census
Suleiman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 984 people with the first name Suleiman, which placed it at #12,594 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
#12,594
National first-name rank
People counted
984
984 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Suleiman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suleiman is White at 39.0%. The next largest groups are Black (38.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Suleiman 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 Suleiman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.0% · 384
- Black or African American38.0% · 374
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.1% · 139
- Two or more races6.4% · 63
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Suleiman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Suleiman from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 399 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
Suleiman 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 Suleiman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Suleimans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, Texas, California recorded the most babies named Suleiman, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Suleiman
The name Suleiman derives from the Arabic language and has its roots in the ancient Semitic cultures of the Middle East. It is a variant spelling of the name Solomon, which traces back to the Hebrew words "Shalom" meaning peace and "Yaman" meaning the right hand, signifying a peaceful reign.
Suleiman was the name of one of the most renowned rulers in Islamic history, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who reigned over the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566. His reign marked the peak of Ottoman power and prestige, earning him the epithet "the Lawgiver" for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system.
The name also appears in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, as Sulayman, referring to the Biblical figure King Solomon. According to Islamic tradition, Sulayman was a prophet and a king renowned for his wisdom, wealth, and power over jinns and animals.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Suleiman dates back to the 7th century CE, when Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik ruled as the Umayyad Caliph from 715 to 717. He is known for his military campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and his attempts to reconcile with his opponents.
Another notable figure in history bearing the name Suleiman was Suleiman the Magnificent's son, Suleiman II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691. Despite his short reign, he is remembered for his efforts to modernize the Ottoman military and his patronage of the arts and architecture.
Suleiman Pasha, also known as Suleiman the Conqueror, was a 16th-century Ottoman general and statesman who played a crucial role in the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. He is particularly renowned for his successful conquest of the island of Rhodes in 1522, which was then a stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller.
Suleiman I, also known as Suleiman the Great, was the Shah of Persia from 1666 to 1694. His reign was marked by significant territorial expansion, cultural achievements, and the introduction of administrative reforms that strengthened the Persian state.
Suleiman Al-Halabi was a 16th-century Syrian scholar and writer who made significant contributions to the fields of literature, history, and geography. His most famous work, "The Cosmography," is a comprehensive description of the known world at the time and is considered a valuable source for understanding the geography and culture of the Ottoman Empire.
People
Suleiman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Suleiman 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
Suleiman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Suleiman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 948 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Suleiman 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 361,555 US residents.
Is Suleiman a common name?
We classify Suleiman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 957 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Suleiman most popular?
The single biggest year for Suleiman was 2023, when 102 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Suleiman is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Suleiman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 984 people with the name Suleiman, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,594 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 Suleiman 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 Suleiman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Suleiman appears almost entirely male. Of the 993 people counted with this name, 99.3% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Suleiman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suleiman is White at 39.0%. The next largest groups are Black (38.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.1%). 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 Suleiman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Suleiman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.0% (384 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 Suleiman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Suleiman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Suleiman 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 Suleiman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Suleiman 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 Suleiman 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 Suleiman?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.