Salima
Feminine · “safe”
One Arabic root produces Islam, Muslim, salaam, Solomon, Salim and Salima. The three consonants s-l-m carry wholeness, safety and peace, and no other root in the language has generated so many words that the rest of the world knows.
How old is the name Salima?
Salima first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Salima alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 600 people named Salima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Salima most popular?
Salima peaked in 1976, reaching #3407 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 3,139 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From salim to Salima
The story of Salima
Semitic roots generate whole families of words by pouring three consonants into fixed vowel patterns, and s-l-m is the most productive of them in terms of international reach. Its core sense is not peace in the sense of quiet but wholeness, being undamaged, and every derived word turns on that: to be safe, to hand over intact, to greet someone by wishing them wholeness. Salima has been used across the Arabic-speaking world for centuries and is very common in North Africa and among South Asian Muslim families. It entered United States records with Arab and South Asian migration and had its best year in 1976.
Meaning
safe, sound, unharmed
Arabic salima is the feminine of salim, from the root s-l-m, whose core sense is being whole or intact. The same root gives salaam, peace; islam, submission or surrender; muslim, one who submits; and the name Sulayman, Solomon. Hebrew shalom and shalem are the same root in a sister language.
How the name formed
- salim
- salima
- Salima
Related forms: Salima · Selime · Salima · Salima · Salimeh
Pronouncing Salima
sah-LEE-mah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Some regional Arabic pronunciations front-stress it as SAH-lih-mah, and both are correct within their own areas.
Nicknames for Salima
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 201822 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3407reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- −15.0%17 in 2025, from 20
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.
Salima in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Salima in Arabic — same name
- Selime in Turkish — same name
- Salima in Urdu — same name
- Salima in Swahili — same name
- Salimeh in Persian — transliteration
Salimas among us
people named Salima are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Salima
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Salima
- #6546
- Salima on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Salima went to 17 girls in 2025, but Salimah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 938th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,608 places above the chart.
- Salima17
- Salimah5
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Salima 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 Juanetta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Salima's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Juanetta climbed just as high around 1933, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Juanetta's path sketches the road Salima is walking now.
Salima 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
Salima beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Salima in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning built from the most internationally recognizable root in Arabic.
- Used across North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.
- Simple vowels and no consonant clusters, so English speakers manage it at once.
- Selima, Saleema and Salima all circulate and split the records.
- It is close to Salma and Selma, both separate names.
- Two stress patterns are used in different parts of the Arab world.
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What they receive
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Salima
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Salimas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Salima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Salima?
- Salima is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Salimah.
- How popular is the name Salima in 2025?
- Salima ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Salima?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Salima — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Salima with classmates?
- Salima will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Salima
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Salima? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Salima and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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