Syed
Syed was given to 166 boys in 2025, #1,221 among boys’ names; 6,043 Americans have been recorded with it since 1965 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,890 Americans named Syed and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 11 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Syed by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Syed?
#1,221 among boys’ names, 2025
Syed fell from #1,166 in 2015 to #1,221 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 83.5 to 97.2 per million.
224 babies in 2000, the peak
Syed peaked in 2000, when 224 boys were given it, #753 among boys’ names. The 166 births of 2025 are 74% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 166 | #1,221 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 105 | #1,629 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 145 | #1,321 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 141 | #1,339 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 127 | #1,432 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 134 | #1,339 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 126 | #1,406 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 137 | #1,327 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 148 | #1,244 | 0.08 |
| 2016 | 157 | #1,207 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 160 | #1,166 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 139 | #1,284 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 156 | #1,160 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 140 | #1,264 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 130 | #1,316 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 147 | #1,213 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 137 | #1,288 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 156 | #1,164 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 156 | #1,147 | 0.08 |
| 2006 | 141 | #1,193 | 0.07 |
| 2005 | 135 | #1,189 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 141 | #1,126 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 178 | #924 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 168 | #957 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 167 | #934 | 0.09 |
| 2000 | 224 | #753 | 0.11 |
| 1999 | 157 | #933 | 0.08 |
| 1998 | 140 | #985 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 155 | #894 | 0.08 |
| 1996 | 133 | #965 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 157 | #868 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 132 | #959 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 123 | #975 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 116 | #1,012 | 0.06 |
| 1991 | 113 | #1,010 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 90 | #1,143 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 88 | #1,135 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 82 | #1,105 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 68 | #1,172 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 72 | #1,111 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 62 | #1,208 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 39 | #1,577 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 53 | #1,271 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 49 | #1,359 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 51 | #1,307 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 44 | #1,446 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 42 | #1,462 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 40 | #1,486 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 28 | #1,850 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 31 | #1,704 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 17 | #2,525 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 25 | #1,879 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 12 | #2,998 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #3,580 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 9 | #3,621 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #3,487 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #3,899 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #4,093 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,469 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 7 | #3,507 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Syed a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Syed has been given almost only to boys: 11 girls in 60 years of records.
Girls and boys named Syed: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Syed, and how old are they?
5,890 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 6,043 Americans ever recorded as Syed. The median Syed alive today is 21 years old; half are between 11 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 20,064 people named Syed (177 women and girls, 19,887 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,156 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.9 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 | 263 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,370 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,440 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,830 |
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 Syed born?
The states with the most babies named Syed are New York, Texas and Illinois, with 63% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 35 | #478 | 3.4× |
| Texas | 33 | #826 | 1.4× |
| Illinois | 17 | #565 | 3.2× |
| Virginia | 15 | #523 | 1.8× |
| California | 10 | #1,671 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #752 | 1.9× |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,096 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,336 | 0.3× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,062 | 0.5× |
Where Syed is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Syed is most over-represented in New York: since 1965 it was given 3.4 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 Syed 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 9,352 babies since 1880, Syed is the most given (65% of them). In 2025 it was given to 166 of their 173 babies (96%), 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 Syed
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 Syed and names like it
- Compare Syed and SidBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sSyed peaked in 2000.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Syed since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Syed.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Syed alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with SMost given first.