Shimon
Masculine · “He has heard”
Shimon is the Hebrew name that English turned into Simon — the same name, kept in its older shape. It has been read aloud in synagogues for well over two thousand years, since the tribe of Simeon was listed among the sons of Jacob, and it is still given to children today. Two syllables, the stress usually landing on the second, ending in a soft open sound.
How old is the name Shimon?
Shimon first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Shimon alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 5,400 people named Shimon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shimon most popular?
Shimon peaked in 2024, reaching #915 nationally. Today it ranks #960, 45 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Shim'on to Shimon
The story of Shimon
Shimon (שִׁמְעוֹן) belongs to the oldest layer of Hebrew names, carried by one of the twelve sons of Jacob and by the tribe descended from him. When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek in Alexandria, the name became Symeon, and Greek-speaking writers later smoothed it toward Simon — the form that spread across Christian Europe and eventually into English. Meanwhile the Hebrew original never stopped being used: it stayed alive in Jewish communities through the Talmudic period, through Yiddish-speaking Europe as Shimen, and into modern Israel. So Shimon and Simon are not cousins but the same name on two roads, one of which never left home.
Meaning
He has heard, or God has heard
From the Hebrew root shama, "to hear". Genesis gives the reason directly when Leah names her second son: the Lord has heard her.
How the name formed
- Shim'on
- Symeon
- Simeon
- Simon
- Shimon
Related forms: שִׁמְעוֹן (Shim'on) · Simon · Simeon · Symeon · Simón · Shimen
Pronouncing Shimon
shee-MOHN
That is the Israeli Hebrew pronunciation, with the stress on the second syllable. In American English many families say SHIM-un instead, and both are heard; deciding which one you want and using it consistently saves a lot of correcting later.
Nicknames for Shimon
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
- 1947
- Most boys named
- 2024255 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #915reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −5.5%241 in 2025, from 255
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.
Shimon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- שִׁמְעוֹן (Shim'on) in Hebrew — same name
- Simon in English — same name
- Simeon in English — same name
- Symeon in Greek — same name
- Simón in Spanish — same name
- Shimen in Yiddish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey, California.
Shimons among us
people named Shimon are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 7,087 born in 2025 was named Shimon
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 Mikeal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shimon's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mikeal climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mikeal's path sketches the road Shimon is walking now.
Shimon 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 Shimon is headed
Shimon 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.
Shimon beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shimon in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is not in dispute — the Hebrew Bible states it outright, which is rarer than parents expect.
- An unbroken record of use from antiquity to the present, in Hebrew, Greek, Yiddish and modern Israeli naming alike.
- Almost everyone already knows Simon, so the name reads as familiar even where the Hebrew form is not.
- Established short forms — Shimi, Shim — that come ready-made rather than invented.
- Spelled the way it is most often pronounced by those who use it, letter for letter.
- Two pronunciations circulate in the US, shee-MOHN and SHIM-un, so expect to state your preference more than once — at school, at the doctor, on the first day of anything.
- It will be heard as Simon by people meeting it cold, and written that way on some forms. Shimon and Simon are the same name, which helps, but the correction is a lifelong small errand.
- The name carries a clear Hebrew and Jewish identity. For many families that is precisely the point; it is worth naming out loud rather than discovering later.
- Outside the communities where it is well established, a child is unlikely to meet another Shimon — full ownership of the name, with the usual cost of being the one who spells it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Shimon to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Shimon
Masculine · #960 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shimons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Shimon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shimon in 2025?
- Shimon ranks #960 among US boy names in 2025, with 241 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shimon?
- About 1 in every 7,087 US boys born in 2025 was named Shimon — 241 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shimon with classmates?
- Shimon will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shimon
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Wallace#960 · Darwin#960 · Montgomery#960 · Aldo#960 · Damari#958 · Melvin#958 · Arian#965 · Felipe#955
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shimon? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shimon and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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