Salimah
Salimah was given to 5 girls in 2025, #16,837 among girls’ names; 281 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Salimah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Salimah?
#16,837 among girls’ names, 2025
Salimah entered the girls’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #16,837 in 2025.
13 babies in 1998, the peak
Salimah peaked in 1998, when 13 girls were given it, #7,438 among girls’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #16,837 | 3.1 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,874 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 7 | #13,336 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 5 | #17,253 | 3.0 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,294 | 4.7 |
| 2014 | 7 | #14,299 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 8 | #12,942 | 4.6 |
| 2012 | 7 | #14,703 | 4.0 |
| 2011 | 5 | #19,049 | 2.8 |
| 2010 | 7 | #14,681 | 3.9 |
Every recorded year (39)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6 | #17,096 | 3.2 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,730 | 3.2 |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,790 | 4.3 |
| 2004 | 8 | #12,528 | 4.4 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,581 | 2.8 |
| 2001 | 5 | #17,399 | 2.8 |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,572 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 8 | #11,165 | 4.5 |
| 1998 | 13 | #7,438 | 7.4 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,600 | 4.6 |
| 1996 | 8 | #10,334 | 4.6 |
| 1995 | 7 | #11,507 | 4.0 |
| 1993 | 6 | #13,086 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 8 | #10,257 | 4.3 |
| 1991 | 7 | #11,229 | 3.7 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,732 | 2.6 |
| 1989 | 5 | #14,026 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 7 | #10,118 | 3.9 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,964 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,326 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,920 | 4.2 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,765 | 4.2 |
| 1982 | 8 | #8,049 | 4.7 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,833 | 4.2 |
| 1980 | 9 | #7,261 | 5.4 |
| 1979 | 10 | #6,585 | 6.2 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,874 | 7.2 |
| 1976 | 11 | #5,505 | 7.5 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,421 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Salimah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Salimah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 39 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Salimah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Salimah, and how old are they?
An estimated 275 Americans named Salimah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 29 years old and half are between 18 and 42. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 355 people named Salimah (353 women and girls, 2 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 253 born in the U.S. The Census count is 40% 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.
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 6 names spelled alike, given to 12,137 babies since 1880, Salimah is the fourth most given (2.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 326 babies (1.5%), the fifth 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 Salimah
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 Salimah and names like it
- Compare Salimah and SalmaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSalimah peaked in 1998.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Salimah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Salimah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.