Name Awesome

Salih

#4,677 in 2025Boys' name

Pious

Salih has been given to 587 babies in the U.S. since 1973. In 2025 it ranked #4,677 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 28 recorded.

Babies named Salih, 2025

1 in 151,000

Salih over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Salih: meaning, origin, and history

Pious

Arabic

What Salih means

Salih means “pious”, associated with ṣāliḥ.

Origin, language, and formation

Salih is used in English, Malay and Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Salih comes through Arabic صَالِح.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Saleh.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Malay, Salih is pronounced [sa.leh].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 587 boys were recorded with the name Salih between 1973 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 28 in 2017; its best national rank was #3,866 in 2017.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,554 in 2020 to #4,677 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,156 in 2015 to #4,677 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 Salih?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 151,000
22 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 77,600
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,677
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
104,451 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Salih 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 104,451 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Salih. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Salihs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Salih was born before 2011 — so the typical Salih is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
34.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
75.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
587
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 34.6% of all recorded uses (203).

Is Salih 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
−267
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,877
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−521
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.88×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
78.6%
Peak was 2017 (28)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
28.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,866
2017

Spellings of Salih

Salih is not the most common spelling — Ralph is, with 72.5% against Salih's 0.10%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Salih is used

Across 1910–2025, Salih was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,630,370 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 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. Salih has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Salih around the world

Where Salih 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
    #1,897
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2025–2025
    #647
    in 2025
  • France
    1971–2025
    #1,185
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2011–2022
    #2,602
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1967–1981
    #425
    in 1981

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

Salih by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,677
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,877
Best rank ever
#3,866
2017
Peak year
2017
28 that year
First recorded
1973
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
587
Count in 2025
22

Names similar to Salih

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

SalahSalarSalehSalimSallySalaarSalifSaleemSalemSaliouSalomeSalmanSalmaanSalixSalamSalilSalikSalSalomonSallieSalbadorSalvatorSaladinSalaam

Sibling names for Salih

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 Salih

Top names of 2017, Salih's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2017Boys' names starting with SMalay Boy Names