Suleyman
Of Arabic origin meaning "man of peace" or "man of integrity".
Name Census estimates that about 318 living Americans carry the first name Suleyman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Suleyman today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Suleyman births was 2024 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Suleyman. 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 Suleyman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
318
~ 1 in 1,077,844 Americans
Peak year
2024
29 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,870
Tracked since 2000
Census
Suleyman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 558 people with the first name Suleyman, which placed it at #19,133 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
#19,133
National first-name rank
People counted
558
558 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Suleyman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suleyman is White at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Black (21.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%). 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 Suleyman 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 Suleyman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.9% · 368
- Black or African American21.0% · 117
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 38
- Two or more races3.4% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 1
Popularity
Suleyman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Suleyman from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 145 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Suleyman remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Suleyman 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 Suleyman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Suleymans live
Origin
Meaning and history of Suleyman
The name Suleyman has its origins in the Arabic language and is a variant of the name Sulaiman, which is derived from the Semitic root words "s-l-m" meaning "peace" or "wholeness". It is the Arabic form of the name Solomon, which has biblical roots.
The name Suleyman gained widespread recognition and popularity due to its association with the famous Sultan Suleyman I, also known as Suleyman the Magnificent, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566. He was a powerful and influential ruler who expanded the empire's territories and presided over a golden age of cultural and architectural achievements.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Suleyman can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned as the name of the Prophet Solomon, revered in Islamic tradition for his wisdom, wealth, and ability to communicate with animals and control jinns. The Quran contains various stories and references to Suleyman, highlighting his significance in Islamic scripture.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Suleyman. One of the earliest was Suleyman ibn Abd al-Malik, an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 715 to 717 CE. Another prominent figure was Suleyman I, the tenth Ottoman Sultan, who reigned from 1520 to 1566 and is considered one of the greatest rulers in Ottoman history.
Other notable individuals with the name include Suleyman Pasha, a renowned Ottoman grand vizier and military leader from the 16th century, and Suleyman the Lawgiver, an Anatolian ruler from the 13th century who established the first written legal code in the region.
In addition, Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan, a Turkish revolutionary and military officer who played a significant role in the Young Turk movement in the early 20th century, and Suleyman Demirel, a prominent Turkish politician and the 9th President of Turkey from 1964 to 1993, also bore this name.
People
Suleyman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Suleyman 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
Suleyman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Suleyman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 318 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Suleyman 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 1,077,844 US residents.
Is Suleyman a common name?
We classify Suleyman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 321 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Suleyman most popular?
The single biggest year for Suleyman was 2024, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Suleyman is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Suleyman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 558 people with the name Suleyman, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,133 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 Suleyman 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 Suleyman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Suleyman appears almost entirely male. Of the 553 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 Suleyman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Suleyman is White at 65.9%. The next largest groups are Black (21.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.8%). 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 Suleyman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Suleyman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.9% (368 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 Suleyman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Suleyman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Suleyman 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 Suleyman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Suleyman 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 Suleyman 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 Suleyman?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.