Head to head · Girls' names
Salem vs Vienna
#435 vs #434 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Vienna is a whisker ahead (#434 vs #435 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name 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
On the charts, Vienna leads 5 measures of 6; Salem leads 1.
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
- 1880s: Salem —, Vienna #908 — Vienna higher
- 1890s: Salem —, Vienna #1596 — Vienna higher
- 1900s: Salem —, Vienna #1578 — Vienna higher
- 1910s: Salem —, Vienna #1604 — Vienna higher
- 1920s: Salem —, Vienna #2808 — Vienna higher
- 1930s: Salem —, Vienna #3639 — Vienna higher
- 1940s: Salem —, Vienna #3750 — Vienna higher
- 1950s: Salem —, Vienna #3288 — Vienna higher
- 1960s: Salem —, Vienna #4339 — Vienna higher
- 1970s: Salem #6662, Vienna #6265 — Vienna higher
- 1980s: Salem #6821, Vienna #5694 — Vienna higher
- 1990s: Salem #5473, Vienna #3848 — Vienna higher
- 2000s: Salem #2948, Vienna #2501 — Vienna higher
- 2010s: Salem #1684, Vienna #975 — Vienna higher
- 2020s: Salem #474, Vienna #663 — Salem higher
Vienna stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Salem took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Salem | Vienna |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #908 |
| 1890s | — | #1596 |
| 1900s | — | #1578 |
| 1910s | — | #1604 |
| 1920s | — | #2808 |
| 1930s | — | #3639 |
| 1940s | — | #3750 |
| 1950s | — | #3288 |
| 1960s | — | #4339 |
| 1970s | #6662 | #6265 |
| 1980s | #6821 | #5694 |
| 1990s | #5473 | #3848 |
| 2000s | #2948 | #2501 |
| 2010s | #1684 | #975 |
| 2020s | #474 | #663 |
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.
Vienna
From Vienna, the Austrian capital
The city name is certain; its origin is not fully settled. The Roman camp on the site was Vindobona, usually read as Celtic elements meaning roughly 'white, fair' and 'settlement, foundation'. A competing account traces the German Wien to Vedunia, a Celtic name for the river running through the city. Either way, the layer a parent can rely on is the place itself.
Vindobona → Wien → Vienne → Vienna
How it traveled
Vienna is a place name that became a personal one, which is a well-worn road in English — the same road Florence and Georgia traveled. The Romans built a garrison called Vindobona on the Danube; the German name Wien and the English Vienna both descend from that ancient naming, though scholars still argue over the exact link.
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.
Vienna
vee-EN-uh
Stress on the middle syllable, exactly as the city is said in American English. Speakers of German will say the city as Wien, which sounds nothing alike — worth knowing rather than worrying about.
- Vi — The most natural short form; also long used on its own and as a short form of Violet and Viola.
- Vee — Informal, spoken more than written.
- Enna — Taken from the middle of the name; used informally within families.
- Vienne — A softened variant sometimes used affectionately; also the French name for the city.
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 with fewer syllablesSalem is 2 syllables to Vienna's 3
Choose Vienna if you want…
- a name on the way upup 370 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itVienna runs 3 syllables, Salem 2
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.
Vienna
Strengths
- A spelling almost every English speaker already knows from an atlas, so it rarely needs repeating or correcting.
- One settled pronunciation in American English, matching the city.
- Recognized across Europe in closely related forms — Viena, Vienne, Wien — so it travels without becoming unrecognizable.
To consider
- It is a city first. Most people will hear the place before they hear a person, and small towns named Vienna in Virginia and Georgia are pronounced differently by some locals — vy-ENN-uh.
- In American supermarkets, Vienna also names a canned sausage. It is a minor association, and one that fades quickly once a real Vienna is standing there, but it exists.
- The name is climbing quickly. A child named Vienna now will likely be the only one in her class, but may meet others by the time she is grown — worth knowing if rarity is part of the appeal.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
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 Vienna 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 Vienna?
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 head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Salem and Vienna — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Salem or Vienna — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Salem or Vienna?
- Vienna, in 2025: Vienna ranked #434 with 712 babies; Salem ranked #435 with 711 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Salem or Vienna?
- Vienna. Over the last five years Salem moved up 173 places; Vienna moved up 370 places.
- Which is the older name, Salem or Vienna?
- Salem entered the US charts in 1976; Vienna entered the US charts in 1882. On the American record, Vienna is the older name.
- How many people are named Salem and Vienna?
- About 6,500 people named Salem are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 7,100 people named Vienna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Salems or Viennas in the classroom?
- Salem will almost certainly be the only one in school. Vienna 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
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