Salih
Salih was given to 22 boys in 2025, #4,677 among boys’ names; 587 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Salih by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Salih mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Salih is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “pious” (literally).
Borrowed from Arabic صَالِح (ṣāliḥ, literally “pious”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Salih?
#4,677 among boys’ names, 2025
Salih fell from #4,156 in 2015 to #4,677 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 13.0 to 12.9 per million.
28 babies in 2017, the peak
Salih peaked in 2017, when 28 boys were given it, #3,866 among boys’ names. The 22 births of 2025 are 79% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 22 | #4,677 | 12.9 |
| 2024 | 24 | #4,410 | 13.9 |
| 2023 | 19 | #5,210 | 11.1 |
| 2022 | 17 | #5,592 | 9.7 |
| 2021 | 20 | #4,898 | 11.4 |
| 2020 | 13 | #6,554 | 7.5 |
| 2019 | 25 | #4,207 | 13.9 |
| 2018 | 20 | #4,887 | 11.0 |
| 2017 | 28 | #3,866 | 15.1 |
| 2016 | 17 | #5,512 | 9.0 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 25 | #4,156 | 13.0 |
| 2014 | 21 | #4,675 | 10.9 |
| 2013 | 20 | #4,763 | 10.6 |
| 2012 | 16 | #5,672 | 8.4 |
| 2011 | 13 | #6,512 | 6.8 |
| 2010 | 18 | #5,205 | 9.4 |
| 2009 | 20 | #4,892 | 10.1 |
| 2008 | 17 | #5,440 | 8.3 |
| 2007 | 14 | #6,201 | 6.7 |
| 2006 | 10 | #7,885 | 4.9 |
| 2005 | 6 | #11,203 | 3.0 |
| 2004 | 14 | #5,735 | 7.1 |
| 2003 | 16 | #4,993 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 11 | #6,438 | 5.7 |
| 2001 | 18 | #4,427 | 9.3 |
| 2000 | 11 | #6,224 | 5.6 |
| 1999 | 5 | #11,288 | 2.6 |
| 1998 | 13 | #5,109 | 6.8 |
| 1996 | 8 | #6,991 | 4.2 |
| 1995 | 12 | #5,062 | 6.3 |
| 1994 | 12 | #5,056 | 6.2 |
| 1993 | 6 | #8,503 | 3.1 |
| 1992 | 5 | #9,550 | 2.5 |
| 1991 | 6 | #8,056 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 10 | #4,719 | 5.2 |
| 1983 | 5 | #7,133 | 2.8 |
| 1982 | 7 | #5,508 | 3.9 |
| 1981 | 6 | #6,108 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 6 | #6,105 | 3.4 |
| 1979 | 6 | #5,928 | 3.5 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,954 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,321 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,119 | 5.1 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,744 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Salih a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Salih has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 44 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Salih: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Salih, and how old are they?
An estimated 575 Americans named Salih and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 25. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,069 people named Salih (11 women and girls, 1,058 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 467 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.3 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 3,708 babies since 1880, Salih is the third most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 22 of their 146 babies (15%), again the third 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 Salih
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 Salih and names like it
- Compare Salih and SalehBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sSalih peaked in 2017.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Salih since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Salih: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2017The year the most babies were named Salih.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Salih alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with SMost given first.