Name Awesome

Cem

Boys' name

King; prince, through جم

Cem has been given to 109 babies in the U.S. since 1982. 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 2005, with 10 recorded.

Babies named Cem, 2024

1 in 669,000

Cem 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cem: meaning, origin, and history

King; prince, through جم

Persian

What Cem means

Cem belongs to the name family reached through Cem → جم. Its meaning is “king; prince”.

Origin, language, and formation

Cem is used in Turkish. Its origins include Persian.

Cem comes through Ottoman Turkish جم and fa-cls جم.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include جم.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Turkish, Cem is pronounced /ˈdʒem/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 109 boys were recorded with the name Cem between 1982 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 10 in 2005; its best national rank was #6,056 in 1996.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Cem?

Cem 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 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cem 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cem. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cems were born

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

Median birth year
2000
About 25 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
36.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
54.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
109
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 36.7% of all recorded uses (40).

Is Cem 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 2005 (10)
Years since peak
20
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#6,056
1996

Cem around the world

Where Cem 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
    1996–2025
    #3,256
    in 2025
  • France
    1972–2024
    #6,776
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1977–2006
    #657
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Cem 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
#6,056
1996
Peak year
2005
10 that year
First recorded
1982
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
109
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Cem

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

Cemal

Sibling names for Cem

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 Cem

Top names of 2005, Cem's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1996Boys' names starting with CKurdish Boy NamesKurdish NamesUncommon Turkish Boy Names