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Absalom

Boys' name

Father of peace

Absalom has been given to 208 babies in the U.S. since 1971. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1990, with 10 recorded.

Babies named Absalom, 2024

1 in 334,000

Absalom over time, 1880–2025

Boys
02.557.51018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Absalom: meaning, origin, and history

Father of peace

Hebrew

What Absalom means

Absalom means “father of peace”, associated with avshalóm.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Hebrew אַבְשָׁלוֹם (avshalóm, literally “father of peace”), from אָב (av, “father”) + שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Absalom (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Absalom is used in English and Polish. Its origins include Hebrew.

Absalom comes through Hebrew אַבְשָׁלוֹם.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Absalon.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Absalom is pronounced /ˈæb.sə.ləm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 208 boys were recorded with the name Absalom between 1971 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 10 in 1990; its best national rank was #4,188 in 1974.

How common is Absalom?

Absalom had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 334,000
10 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 172,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
231,706 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Absalom sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 231,706 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Absalom. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Absaloms were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Absalom was born before 2000 — so the typical Absalom is around 25 today.

Median birth year
2000
About 25 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
26.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
51.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
208
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 26.9% of all recorded uses (56).

Is Absalom rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1990 (10)
Years since peak
35
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,188
1974

Absalom around the world

Where Absalom ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2017–2022
    #4,002
    in 2022
  • France
    2019–2019
    #5,634
    in 2019
  • Canada
    2017–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Absalom by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,188
1974
Peak year
1990
10 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
208
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Absalom

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

AbshirAbsalonSholomShalomElomAvshalomIslom

Sibling names for Absalom

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Absalom

Top names of 1990, Absalom's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1974Boys' names starting with A