Salma
Salma was given to 278 girls in 2025, #937 among girls’ names; 10,316 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,200 Americans named Salma and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Salma by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Salma mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Salma is “a female given name.”
Borrowed from Arabic سَلْمَى (salmā).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Salma?
#937 among girls’ names, 2025
Salma fell from #803 in 2015 to #937 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.20 to 0.17 per 1,000.
442 babies in 1999, the peak
Salma peaked in 1999, when 442 girls were given it, #569 among girls’ names. The 278 births of 2025 are 63% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 278 | #937 | 0.17 |
| 2024 | 310 | #872 | 0.19 |
| 2023 | 295 | #907 | 0.18 |
| 2022 | 311 | #898 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 290 | #919 | 0.18 |
| 2020 | 240 | #1,048 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 289 | #919 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 340 | #804 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 362 | #767 | 0.21 |
| 2016 | 385 | #740 | 0.22 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 351 | #803 | 0.20 |
| 2014 | 309 | #883 | 0.17 |
| 2013 | 324 | #826 | 0.18 |
| 2012 | 348 | #786 | 0.20 |
| 2011 | 313 | #844 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 300 | #884 | 0.17 |
| 2009 | 360 | #789 | 0.20 |
| 2008 | 332 | #848 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 349 | #825 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 362 | #760 | 0.19 |
| 2005 | 358 | #750 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 309 | #812 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 377 | #694 | 0.21 |
| 2002 | 318 | #762 | 0.18 |
| 2001 | 364 | #684 | 0.20 |
| 2000 | 359 | #673 | 0.20 |
| 1999 | 442 | #569 | 0.25 |
| 1998 | 430 | #571 | 0.24 |
| 1997 | 291 | #735 | 0.17 |
| 1996 | 101 | #1,567 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 49 | #2,576 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 55 | #2,371 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 46 | #2,664 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 42 | #2,855 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 41 | #2,866 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 38 | #3,003 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 26 | #3,865 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 19 | #4,612 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 24 | #3,712 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 24 | #3,615 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 12 | #5,964 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 16 | #4,680 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 13 | #5,383 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 17 | #4,486 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 16 | #4,688 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,230 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #11,512 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 13 | #5,143 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,893 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,341 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 10 | #5,670 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,260 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,377 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,736 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Salma a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Salma has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 54 years of records.
Girls and boys named Salma: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Salma, and how old are they?
10,200 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 10,316 Americans ever recorded as Salma. The median Salma alive today is 17 years old; half are between 9 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 12,322 people named Salma (12,268 women and girls, 54 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,571 born in the U.S. The Census count is 44% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 66 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 526 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,560 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,060 |
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 Salma born?
The states with the most babies named Salma are Texas, Florida and California, with 48% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 47 | #662 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 38 | #487 | 1.0× |
| California | 36 | #825 | 1.4× |
| Minnesota | 19 | #301 | 2.9× |
| New York | 15 | #1,022 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 14 | #703 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 11 | #709 | 1.3× |
| Maryland | 11 | #502 | 0.4× |
| Washington | 10 | #672 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 8 | #1,115 | 0.8× |
Where Salma is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Salma is most over-represented in Minnesota: since 1918 it was given 2.9 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 Salma 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 17,794 babies since 1880, Salma is the most given (58% of them). In 2025 it was given to 278 of their 565 babies (49%), 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 Salma
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 Salma and names like it
- Compare Salma and SalomeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sSalma peaked in 1999.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Salma since 1910.
- The top names of 1999The year the most babies were named Salma.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Salma alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.