Salem
Salem is a unisex name: 711 girls and 400 boys were given it in 2025 (#436 among girls’ names and #679 among boys’, #601 among all names counting both); 11,178 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Salem every year since 2014.
An estimated 11,000 Americans named Salem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 5 years old and half are between 3 and 11.
Salem is among the most evenly shared names of 2025: #17 of 43 unisex names by how close its split is to half and half.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Salem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Salem mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Salem is “a female given name from Hebrew.”
Also “a male given name from Arabic.”
From Biblical Hebrew שָׁלֵם (šālēm) (Genesis 14:18).
/ˈseɪləm/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Salem?
#436 among girls’ names, 2025
Salem rose from #1,433 in 2015 to #436 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.09 to 0.44 per 1,000.
1,174 babies in 2023, the peak
Salem peaked in 2023, when 1,174 babies were given it (734 girls, #417 among girls’ names). The 1,111 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 95% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 711 | #436 | 400 | #679 |
| 2024 | 718 | #432 | 442 | #634 |
| 2023 | 734 | #417 | 440 | #631 |
| 2022 | 700 | #448 | 400 | #680 |
| 2021 | 614 | #506 | 364 | #715 |
| 2020 | 480 | #608 | 288 | #808 |
| 2019 | 377 | #749 | 236 | #926 |
| 2018 | 257 | #1,013 | 155 | #1,215 |
| 2017 | 205 | #1,196 | 165 | #1,152 |
| 2016 | 188 | #1,285 | 149 | #1,247 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 162 | #1,433 | 139 | #1,286 |
| 2014 | 144 | #1,524 | 109 | #1,491 |
| 2013 | 91 | #2,103 | 94 | #1,631 |
| 2012 | 85 | #2,229 | 69 | #2,028 |
| 2011 | 65 | #2,720 | 57 | #2,280 |
| 2010 | 67 | #2,688 | 67 | #2,050 |
| 2009 | 82 | #2,372 | 84 | #1,795 |
| 2008 | 65 | #2,797 | 51 | #2,500 |
| 2007 | 56 | #3,121 | 41 | #2,910 |
| 2006 | 54 | #3,128 | 48 | #2,532 |
| 2005 | 57 | #2,897 | 40 | #2,742 |
| 2004 | 51 | #3,058 | 59 | #2,044 |
| 2003 | 44 | #3,336 | 41 | #2,538 |
| 2002 | 56 | #2,736 | 37 | #2,624 |
| 2001 | 52 | #2,838 | 38 | #2,553 |
| 2000 | 38 | #3,502 | 32 | #2,847 |
| 1999 | 41 | #3,177 | 35 | #2,544 |
| 1998 | 39 | #3,210 | 28 | #2,912 |
| 1997 | 33 | #3,522 | 34 | #2,433 |
| 1996 | 21 | #4,845 | 31 | #2,521 |
| 1995 | 20 | #4,978 | 29 | #2,607 |
| 1994 | 17 | #5,646 | 28 | #2,667 |
| 1993 | 10 | #8,554 | 18 | #3,621 |
| 1992 | 15 | #6,232 | 15 | #4,059 |
| 1991 | 10 | #8,458 | 15 | #3,968 |
| 1990 | 10 | #8,367 | 22 | #2,938 |
| 1989 | 10 | #7,900 | 19 | #3,179 |
| 1988 | 11 | #7,017 | 28 | #2,235 |
| 1987 | 11 | #6,677 | 16 | #3,168 |
| 1986 | 10 | #7,008 | 14 | #3,406 |
| 1985 | 8 | #8,141 | 8 | #5,059 |
| 1984 | 12 | #5,809 | 17 | #2,796 |
| 1983 | 10 | #6,600 | 15 | #3,047 |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,983 | 9 | #4,517 |
| 1981 | under 5 | 15 | #3,001 | |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,260 | 18 | #2,704 |
| 1979 | 8 | #7,870 | 19 | #2,542 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,481 | 16 | #2,772 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,748 | 11 | #3,566 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,470 | 10 | #3,670 |
| 1975 | under 5 | 5 | #6,171 | |
| 1974 | under 5 | 11 | #3,282 | |
| 1973 | under 5 | 8 | #3,990 | |
| 1972 | under 5 | 8 | #3,902 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 9 | #3,603 | |
| 1969 | under 5 | 7 | #3,873 | |
| 1966 | under 5 | 6 | #3,877 | |
| 1963 | under 5 | 5 | #4,525 | |
| 1962 | under 5 | 5 | #4,529 | |
| 1951 | under 5 | 5 | #4,165 | |
| 1950 | under 5 | 6 | #3,624 | |
| 1942 | under 5 | 7 | #3,171 | |
| 1940 | under 5 | 7 | #3,091 | |
| 1931 | under 5 | 8 | #3,055 | |
| 1926 | under 5 | 8 | #3,336 | |
| 1924 | under 5 | 8 | #3,457 | |
| 1923 | under 5 | 5 | #4,782 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 6 | #4,236 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 7 | #3,811 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,858 | |
| 1919 | under 5 | 8 | #3,338 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 12 | #2,515 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 5 | #4,414 | |
| 1915 | under 5 | 6 | #3,761 | |
| 1912 | under 5 | 5 | #2,847 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Salem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 11,178 Americans recorded as Salem, 58% are girls and 42% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Salem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Salem, and how old are they?
11,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 11,178 Americans ever recorded as Salem. The median Salem alive today is 5 years old; half are between 3 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 5,605 people named Salem (2,636 women and girls, 2,969 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,932 born in the U.S. The Census count is 14% above 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 5 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 14 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 156 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 462 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,630 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,710 |
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 Salem born?
The states with the most babies named Salem are Texas, North Carolina and California, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 104 | #544 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 79 | #176 | 2.1× |
| California | 73 | #671 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 57 | #278 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 53 | #357 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 51 | #553 | 0.5× |
| Indiana | 44 | #266 | 1.1× |
| Tennessee | 40 | #346 | 1.3× |
| Kentucky | 40 | #170 | 1.6× |
| Missouri | 32 | #249 | 0.8× |
Where Salem is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Salem is most over-represented in North Carolina: since 1912 it was given 2.1 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 girls’ 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 Salem 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 11,717 babies since 1880, Salem is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,111 of their 1,130 babies (98%), again the most given.
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 Salem
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 Salem and names like it
- Compare Salem and SalamBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sSalem peaked in 2023.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Salem since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Salem: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Salem.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Salem alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.