Salli

Girls' name

Lady, princess, through Sally

Salli has been given to 679 babies in the U.S. since 1938. 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 1956, with 31 recorded.

Babies named Salli, 1991

1 in 779,000

Salli over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Salli: meaning, origin, and history

Lady, princess, through Sally

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Salli means

Salli belongs to the name family reached through Salli → Sally → Sarah. Its meaning is “lady, princess”.

Origin, language, and formation

Salli is used in Finnish.

Salli comes through English Sally.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Sally and Sarah.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Salli is pronounced /ˈsɑlːi/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 679 girls were recorded with the name Salli between 1938 and 1991. Its highest annual count was 31 in 1956; its best national rank was #1,851 in 1948.

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 Salli?

Salli had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1991, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1991: 1 in 779,000; 5 of 3,892,928 births
Among girls only: 1 in 375,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1991: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 539,676 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Salli sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1991 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 539,676 children born in 1991 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Salli. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sallis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Salli was born before 1958 — so the typical Salli is around 67 today.

Median birth year: 1958; About 67 years old
Biggest decade: 1950s; 34.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 26.7%; Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950: 533; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1950s — 34.3% of all recorded uses (233).

Is Salli 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 1956 (31)
Years since peak: 69; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 34.2% average annual change
Best rank ever: #1,851; 1948

Spellings of Salli

Salli is not the most common spelling — Sally is, with 26.1% against Salli's 0.09%.

Sally26.1%205,229
Kelli9.5%74,891
Callie8.9%70,190
Allie6.8%53,251
Sallie6.3%49,961
Hallie5.1%40,376
Kali4.1%32,527
Cali3.0%23,342

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 Salli is used

Across 1910–2025, Salli was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 896,024 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1California1 in —
2Michigan1 in —
3Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Salli has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Salli around the world

Where Salli 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.

South Australia
1965–2013
#818
in 2013

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Salli by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #1,851; 1948
Peak year: 1956; 31 that year
First recorded: 1938
Last recorded: 1991
All-time count: 679
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Salli

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

Salwa Saloma Salima Salam Saleen Saloni Salah Valli Salia Saliha Sala Milli Saliyah Saleah Nelli Halli Salaya Salem Saleha Molli Salimah Sallye Salley Salayah

Sibling names for Salli

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

For a sister

Meryl Roxane Teena Cathrine Doretha Evonne Romona Joanie

For a brother

Hayward Burt Fritz Leigh Kennith Lonny Eddy Jeffry

Explore around Salli

Top names of 1956, Salli's peak year The 1950s in full Other names that peaked in 1948 Girls' names starting with S Finnish Girl Names