Salvador
Masculine · Latin roots · “savior”
Salvador is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 49,605 boys against 183 girls since 1880.
Salvador began as a Latin title for Christ — the Savior — and became a given name across Spain, Portugal and Catalonia, then traveled with Spanish and Portuguese speakers into the Americas. It has been on US records since the nineteenth century without ever dropping away, and it carries its stress differently in each language: sahl-vah-DOR in Spanish, SAL-vuh-dor in English. Both readings are correct, and the name answers to Sal in one and Chava in the other.
How old is the name Salvador?
Salvador first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Salvador alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 40,500 people named Salvador are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Salvador most popular?
Salvador peaked in 1990, reaching #289 nationally. Today it ranks #754, 465 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From salvare (Latin, 'to save') to Salvador
The story of Salvador
The word came before the name: early Christian Latin needed a term for the Greek title Sōtēr, and settled on salvator. From there it passed into Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan as Salvador, given in honor of Christ the Savior much as Jesús and Cristóbal were. The name is written across the map of the Iberian expansion — the island Columbus named San Salvador in 1492, the Brazilian city of Salvador founded in the sixteenth century as São Salvador da Bahia, and the Central American republic of El Salvador. In the United States it has been in continuous use since the late nineteenth century, strongest in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
savior
From Late Latin salvator, 'one who saves', built on salvare (to save). Christian Latin writers coined it to render the Greek title Sōtēr.
How the name formed
- salvareLatin, 'to save'
- SalvatorLate Latin
- SalvadorSpanish, Portuguese, Catalan
Related forms: Salvatore · Sauveur · Salvador · Salvador · Salvator · Sotirios
Pronouncing Salvador
SAL-vuh-dor (English) / sahl-vah-DOR (Spanish)
English pulls the stress to the first syllable; Spanish and Portuguese put it on the last. Nothing in the spelling changes between the two, which is why the name crosses over so easily.
Nicknames for Salvador
High
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 1993905 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #289reached in 1990
- Change vs 2022
- −8.1%341 in 2025, from 371
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.
Salvador in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Salvatore in Italian — same name
- Sauveur in French — same name
- Salvador in Portuguese — same name
- Salvador in Catalan — same name
- Salvator in Latin — same name
- Sotirios in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Salvadors among us
people named Salvador are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,009 born in 2025 was named Salvador
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Hollis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Salvador's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hollis climbed just as high around 1908, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hollis's path sketches the road Salvador is walking now.
Salvador 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 Salvador is headed
Salvador should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Salvador beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Salvador in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in both English and Spanish, so it rarely needs repeating letter by letter.
- Ready-made short forms in two languages: Sal in English, Chava or Salva in Spanish.
- An unbroken record in US births since the nineteenth century, without the sharp peaks and crashes of fashion names.
- Recognizable across Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and French through Salvatore and Sauveur.
- Familiar to most people while staying uncommon enough that a child is unlikely to share it in class.
- The meaning is explicitly religious — a title for Christ. Many families choose it for exactly that reason; others may find it more weight than they want on a first name.
- Most people in the US will hear the painter Salvador Dalí first. That is a strong single association, though a widely admired one.
- The stress moves between Spanish and English, so a Salvador will hear his own name two ways and may spend a lifetime deciding which to correct.
- It also names a country and two cities, which occasionally invites a comment but almost never real confusion.
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What they receive
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Salvador
Masculine · Latin roots · #754 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Salvadors are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 40,500 people named Salvador are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Salvador in 2025?
- Salvador ranks #754 among US boy names in 2025, with 341 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Salvador?
- About 1 in every 5,009 US boys born in 2025 was named Salvador — 341 in all.
- Will my child share the name Salvador with classmates?
- Salvador will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Salvador
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Murphy#754 · Noe#754 · Chandler#753 · Junior#752 · Trace#757 · Zyair#757 · Finnley#757 · Forest#750
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Salvador? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Salvador and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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