Name Awesome

Sal

#6,731 in 2025Boys' name

Short form of Sally

Sal has been given to 3,663 babies in the U.S. since 1909. In 2025 it ranked #6,731 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1958, with 114 recorded.

Babies named Sal, 2025

1 in 255,000

Sal over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sal: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Sally

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sal means

Sal is a short form of Sally.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Sal → Sally → Sarah. The family’s meaning is “lady, princess”, recorded in English with the source elements śārâ.

Origin, language, and formation

Sal is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Sally, Salomon, Salvador and Salvatore.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,663 boys were recorded with the name Sal between 1909 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 114 in 1958; its best national rank was #701 in 1958.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #8,601 in 2020 to #6,731 in 2025.

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 Sal?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 255,000
13 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 131,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#6,731
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
176,762 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sal 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 2025 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 176,762 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sal was born before 1959 — so the typical Sal is around 66 today.

Median birth year
1959
About 66 years old
Biggest decade
1960s
20.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.7%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,289
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1960s — 20.7% of all recorded uses (759).

Is Sal 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
+454
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,870
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
11.4%
Peak was 1958 (114)
Years since peak
67
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#701
1958

Where Sal is used

Across 1910–2025, Sal was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 9,091 boys, against 1 in 32,588 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

011 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 9,091
  2. 2California1 in 25,000
  3. 3New Jersey1 in 25,000
  4. 4Connecticut1 in 100,000
  5. 5New Mexico1 in 100,000
  6. 6Illinois1 in —
  7. 7Louisiana1 in —
  8. 8Massachusetts1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Sal has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Sal

People whose public names include Sal, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Sal by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#6,731
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,870
Best rank ever
#701
1958
Peak year
1958
114 that year
First recorded
1909
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,663
Count in 2025
13

Names similar to Sal

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

SalemSalimSalehSalmanSalahSaleemSalomonSalihFaisalSalarSallySalaarSalomeSalifSaliouSalmaanSalixArsalSalamSalvadorSalvatorSalilSalikSalvadore

Names with a curve like Sal

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Sal, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JameDuwayneWallyDwaneLenRolfDavieCurtissDennieLesleyVernellDarel

Sibling names for Sal

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 Sal

Top names of 1958, Sal's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1958Boys' names starting with S