Saleem
Masculine · “safe”
Salim is whole and unharmed in Arabic — from the root that gives salam, peace, and Islam itself.
How old is the name Saleem?
Saleem first appears in US birth records in 1960 — 65 years ago. The typical Saleem alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 1,900 people named Saleem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Saleem most popular?
Saleem peaked in 1980, reaching #1154 nationally. Today it ranks #2516, 1,362 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From s-l-m to Saleem
The story of Saleem
The root s-l-m ties wholeness, safety, peace and submission together across Arabic and Hebrew alike — shalom and salam are the same word. Salim was the birth name of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. Saleem is a common South Asian spelling and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
safe, whole, unharmed
From the Arabic salim, 'safe' or 'sound', from the root s-l-m, which gives salam, 'peace', and islam, 'submission'. The Hebrew shalom is the same root. The primary sense is wholeness rather than the absence of conflict. The Arabic is documented.
How the name formed
- s-l-m
- salim
- Saleem
Related forms: سليم · Salim · Selim
Pronouncing Saleem
sah-LEEM
Two syllables, stress on the second. Salim and Saleem are said identically.
Nicknames for Saleem
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1960
- Most boys named
- 202472 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1154reached in 1980
- Change vs 2024
- −26.4%53 in 2025, from 72
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Saleem in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- سليم in Arabic — transliteration
- Salim in English — spelling variant
- Selim in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, New York, California.
Saleems among us
people named Saleem are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 32,228 born in 2025 was named Saleem
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Saleem
- #2516
- Saleem on the 2025 chart
- #530
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Saleem went to 53 boys in 2025, but Salem is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 453, which makes it the 530th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,986 places above the chart.
- Salem400
- Saleem53
About 1 boy in 3,771 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,228 for Saleem itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Eulalio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Saleem's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eulalio climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eulalio's path sketches the road Saleem is walking now.
Saleem sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Saleem is headed
Saleem looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Saleem beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Saleem in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That shalom and salam are the same root is a first-rate fact.
- The wholeness meaning is subtler than 'peaceful' suggests.
- Sal is available as a short form with a real record.
- Salim and Saleem are both in circulation.
- It reads as specifically Muslim.
- Selim is the Turkish form and looks different.
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What they receive
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Saleem
Masculine · #2516 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Saleems are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Saleem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Saleem?
- Saleem is one of 2 recorded spellings. Salem is the more common one — 400 births in 2025 against 53 for Saleem.
- How popular is the name Saleem in 2025?
- Saleem ranks #2516 among US boy names in 2025, with 53 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Saleem?
- About 1 in every 32,228 US boys born in 2025 was named Saleem — 53 in all.
- Will my child share the name Saleem with classmates?
- Saleem will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Saleem
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tahir#2516 · Jariel#2516 · Neymar#2516 · Alphonse#2516 · Austen#2516 · Rye#2516 · Stuart#2516 · Jovi#2516
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Saleem? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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