Saleh
Saleh was given to 55 boys in 2025, #2,472 among boys’ names; 1,783 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,750 Americans named Saleh and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 7 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Saleh by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Saleh mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Saleh is “a male given name from Arabic, variant of Salih.” Its etymology gives the sense “pious” (literally).
From Iranian Persian صالح (sâleh) or directly from Arabic صَالِح (ṣāliḥ, literally “pious”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Saleh?
#2,472 among boys’ names, 2025
Saleh fell from #2,348 in 2015 to #2,472 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 29.2 to 32.2 per million.
83 babies in 2018, the peak
Saleh peaked in 2018, when 83 boys were given it, #1,831 among boys’ names. The 55 births of 2025 are 66% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 55 | #2,472 | 32.2 |
| 2024 | 81 | #1,952 | 47.0 |
| 2023 | 79 | #1,962 | 46.2 |
| 2022 | 74 | #2,057 | 42.4 |
| 2021 | 61 | #2,294 | 34.9 |
| 2020 | 63 | #2,204 | 36.5 |
| 2019 | 61 | #2,285 | 34.0 |
| 2018 | 83 | #1,831 | 45.7 |
| 2017 | 74 | #1,955 | 40.0 |
| 2016 | 75 | #1,955 | 39.5 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #2,348 | 29.2 |
| 2014 | 59 | #2,267 | 30.7 |
| 2013 | 54 | #2,356 | 28.5 |
| 2012 | 48 | #2,589 | 25.3 |
| 2011 | 45 | #2,694 | 23.7 |
| 2010 | 36 | #3,171 | 18.8 |
| 2009 | 38 | #3,095 | 19.2 |
| 2008 | 49 | #2,574 | 24.0 |
| 2007 | 50 | #2,528 | 24.1 |
| 2006 | 35 | #3,142 | 17.0 |
| 2005 | 43 | #2,601 | 21.5 |
| 2004 | 36 | #2,867 | 18.1 |
| 2003 | 32 | #3,028 | 16.2 |
| 2002 | 30 | #3,073 | 15.5 |
| 2001 | 25 | #3,486 | 12.9 |
| 2000 | 26 | #3,274 | 13.2 |
| 1999 | 24 | #3,348 | 12.5 |
| 1998 | 28 | #2,911 | 14.6 |
| 1997 | 26 | #2,961 | 13.8 |
| 1996 | 22 | #3,273 | 11.6 |
| 1995 | 26 | #2,829 | 13.7 |
| 1994 | 22 | #3,186 | 11.4 |
| 1993 | 24 | #2,922 | 12.2 |
| 1992 | 29 | #2,516 | 14.5 |
| 1991 | 25 | #2,733 | 12.4 |
| 1990 | 15 | #3,926 | 7.3 |
| 1989 | 24 | #2,669 | 12.0 |
| 1988 | 19 | #2,930 | 9.9 |
| 1987 | 10 | #4,513 | 5.4 |
| 1986 | 13 | #3,614 | 7.1 |
| 1985 | 8 | #5,058 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 16 | #2,929 | 8.9 |
| 1983 | 11 | #3,828 | 6.1 |
| 1982 | 17 | #2,803 | 9.4 |
| 1981 | 12 | #3,571 | 6.7 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,410 | 3.9 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,927 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,587 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,683 | 3.0 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,320 | 3.2 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,170 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 5 | #5,867 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Saleh a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Saleh has been given almost only to boys: 6 girls in 52 years of records.
Girls and boys named Saleh: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Saleh, and how old are they?
1,750 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,783 Americans ever recorded as Saleh. The median Saleh alive today is 14 years old; half are between 7 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 3,308 people named Saleh (66 women and girls, 3,242 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,358 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 35 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 279 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 562 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 875 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Saleh born?
The states with the most babies named Saleh are California, New York and Michigan, with 79% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 13 | #1,420 | 0.8× |
| New York | 7 | #1,541 | 2.4× |
| Michigan | 7 | #984 | 2.3× |
| Texas | 7 | #2,249 | 0.2× |
Where Saleh is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Saleh is most over-represented in New York: since 1974 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Saleh with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,555 babies since 1880, Saleh is the most given (50% of them). In 2025 it was given to 55 of their 135 babies (41%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Saleh
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Saleh and names like it
- Compare Saleh and SalahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSaleh peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Saleh since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Saleh.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Saleh alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.