Head to head · Boys' names
Salem vs Trevor
#679 vs #679 in 2025
Salem and Trevor share the same spot on the 2025 charts (#679). The records cannot split them; sound and story will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
The tape is even: Salem and Trevor each lead 2 measures of 6.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Salem #3069, Trevor #2453 — Trevor higher
- 1920s: Salem #3719, Trevor #2632 — Trevor higher
- 1930s: Salem #2864, Trevor #2045 — Trevor higher
- 1940s: Salem #2906, Trevor #1533 — Trevor higher
- 1950s: Salem #3522, Trevor #1151 — Trevor higher
- 1960s: Salem #3803, Trevor #567 — Trevor higher
- 1970s: Salem #3473, Trevor #193 — Trevor higher
- 1980s: Salem #3170, Trevor #117 — Trevor higher
- 1990s: Salem #2951, Trevor #64 — Trevor higher
- 2000s: Salem #2480, Trevor #111 — Trevor higher
- 2010s: Salem #1523, Trevor #282 — Trevor higher
- 2020s: Salem #690, Trevor #543 — Trevor higher
Trevor stood higher in every recorded decade — 12 of 12.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Salem | Trevor |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #3069 | #2453 |
| 1920s | #3719 | #2632 |
| 1930s | #2864 | #2045 |
| 1940s | #2906 | #1533 |
| 1950s | #3522 | #1151 |
| 1960s | #3803 | #567 |
| 1970s | #3473 | #193 |
| 1980s | #3170 | #117 |
| 1990s | #2951 | #64 |
| 2000s | #2480 | #111 |
| 2010s | #1523 | #282 |
| 2020s | #690 | #543 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Salem
peace, whole, safe
From the Semitic root s-l-m, which gives Hebrew shalem 'complete, whole' and shalom 'peace', and Arabic salām 'peace' with sālim 'safe, sound'. The biblical Salem of Genesis 14 was understood by later Jewish and Christian writers as Jerusalem.
Shalem → Salēm → Salem
How it traveled
Salem begins as a place: the city whose king Melchizedek meets Abraham in Genesis, a name Greek and Latin translators of the Hebrew Bible passed on unchanged. English readers of scripture knew it for centuries before Puritan colonists in Massachusetts chose it for a settlement in the 1620s, and later Americans repeated it across the map — Salem in Oregon, Winston-Salem in North Carolina, New Salem in Illinois.
Trevor
Big settlement
From Welsh Trefor, from tref, 'homestead, town', and mawr, 'big'.
Trefor → Trevor
How it traveled
In Johannesburg in the 1950s the English priest Trevor Huddleston, who fought apartheid from the township of Sophiatown, gave a schoolboy called Hugh Masekela his first trumpet; Masekela became one of the great jazz musicians of Africa, and Louis Armstrong later sent the school band another. In 1945 Trevor Howard played the doctor in David Lean's Brief Encounter, who falls in love with a married woman at a railway station and lets her go.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Salem
SAY-lum
Stress on the first syllable, matching the American cities. The Arabic name spelled the same way is said sah-LEEM, with the stress on the second syllable — worth deciding which you mean if your family uses both.
- Sal — The obvious one-syllable shortening; also long used on its own for Sally and Salvatore, so it reads as a nickname rather than a full name.
- Sale — Occasional informal clipping within families; rarely written down.
- Lem — Rare, back-clipped from the second syllable; used more as a household name than in public.
Trevor
TREV-er
Two syllables with the stress on the first.
- Trev — The usual short form.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Salem if you want…
- a name on the way upup 127 places on the charts in five years
- plenty of nickname options3 recorded short forms — Sal, Sale and Lem
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 49% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 73% for Trevor
Choose Trevor if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsTrevor is stepping back from its peak
- a name that stays wholeone recorded short form for Trevor (Trev)
- a name that feels very nowTrevor is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Salem
Strengths
- Spelled the way Americans already read it, thanks to Salem, Oregon and Winston-Salem — little correcting, little repeating.
- Two syllables, one stress, no silent letters; it survives being shouted across a playground.
- Used for boys and girls in US records, so the spelling carries either child without adjustment.
To consider
- The Salem witch trials of 1692 are the first thing many Americans think of, and the talking cat in Sabrina the Teenage Witch is the second. Both associations are Halloween-tinted rather than dark, but they are there for life.
- It leans toward girls in US records without settling there, and boys named Salem are the smaller group. Either child may meet an assumption about which one they are before anyone sees them.
- The name has been climbing steadily and recently. A Salem starting school now will likely be the only one, but that is less certain by the time they finish it.
Trevor
Strengths
- Instantly recognized and spelled as everyone expects.
- A settled Welsh meaning.
- Comes with Trev as a ready short form.
To consider
- It was very common a generation ago, so it reads as a name of that era.
- In Britain it can sound more middle-aged than it does in America.
- For a girl it would be very unusual.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Salem
49%chance Salem feels dated by 2040
Salem is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Trevor
73%chance Trevor feels dated by 2040
Trevor is coming down from a big peak (#58 in 1994). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Salem and Trevor in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Salem and Trevor?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- Beloved classics quietly disappearing
- One-decade wonders
- Names that belong entirely to the 1990s
- Names ending in -or
- all guides
Where Salem and Trevor each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Salem or Trevor — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Salem or Trevor?
- They tie in 2025: Salem ranked #679 with 400 babies; Trevor ranked #679 with 400 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Salem or Trevor?
- Salem. Over the last five years Salem moved up 127 places; Trevor moved down 273 places.
- Which is the older name, Salem or Trevor?
- Salem entered the US charts in 1912; Trevor entered the US charts in 1915. On the American record, Salem is the older name.
- How many people are named Salem and Trevor?
- About 4,500 people named Salem are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 155,000 people named Trevor are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Salems or Trevors in the classroom?
- Salem will almost certainly be the only one in school. Trevor will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Salem, Trevor and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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