Name Awesome

Salma

#937 in 2025Girls' name

Safe

Salma has been given to 10,316 babies in the U.S. since 1918. In 2025 it ranked #937 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1999, with 442 recorded.

Babies named Salma, 2025

1 in 11,900

Salma over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Salma: meaning, origin, and history

Safe

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Salma means

Salma means “safe”.

Origin, language, and formation

Salma is used in English and Spanish.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Spanish, Salma is pronounced /ˈsalma/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 10,311 girls were recorded with the name Salma between 1918 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 442 in 1999; its best national rank was #569 in 1999.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #1,048 in 2020 to #937 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #803 in 2015 to #937 in 2025.

In the United States, 5 boys were recorded with the name Salma between 2012 and 2012. Its highest annual count was 5 in 2012; its best national rank was #13,845 in 2012.

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 Salma?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 11,900
278 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 5,780
0.02% of girls
Rank, 2025
#937
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
8,267 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Salma 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 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 5004%

Put another way: gather 8,267 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Salma. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Salmas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Salma was born before 2009 — so the typical Salma is around 16 today.

Median birth year
2009
About 16 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
33.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
79.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
10,305
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 33.8% of all recorded uses (3,488).

Is Salma 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
−65
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+111
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−134
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.79×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
62.9%
Peak was 1999 (442)
Years since peak
26
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
8.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#569
1999

Spellings of Salma

Salma is not the most common spelling — Sara is, with 28.3% against Salma's 0.67%.

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 Salma is used

Across 2016–2025, Salma was most concentrated in Minnesota — about 1 in 1,020 girls, against 1 in 4,443 across all states with data. It was least common in Oklahoma (1 in 33,333).

398 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Minnesota1 in 1,020
  2. 2Illinois1 in 2,778
  3. 3Washington1 in 3,030
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 3,226
  5. 5Florida1 in 3,333
  6. 6New York1 in 3,571
  7. 7Massachusetts1 in 3,704
  8. 8Michigan1 in 3,846

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.

Geographically, Salma is one of the more regionally concentrated names in the country — more concentrated than 94% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Salma around the world

Where Salma 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
    #622
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1980–2024
    #790
    in 2024
  • Ireland
    2001–2025
    #544
    in 2025
  • France
    1962–2025
    #296
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #391
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #488
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1974–2013
    #818
    in 2013

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

Notable people named Salma

People whose public names include Salma, 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.

Salma in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Salma. Linked forms have their own page here.

SalmahZalmay

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Salma by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#937
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 111
Best rank ever
#569
1999
Peak year
1999
442 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
10,311
Count in 2025
278

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#13,845
2012
Peak year
2012
5 that year
First recorded
2012
Last recorded
2012
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Salma

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

SalemSalinaSalenaSalomeZelmaVilmaSelmaPalmaSallieSalwaDelmaElmaSallyZulmaSaleenVelmaSalomaSalimaSalamHilmaWilmaSaloniSalahSalli

Names with a curve like Salma

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

ZariaSarahiAliyaAmaniEmaniAkiraKeylaMiyaAnsleyKayaSkyKenia

Sibling names for Salma

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 Salma

Top names of 1999, Salma's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1999Girls' names starting with SMuslim Girl NamesShort Spanish Girl Names