Name Awesome

Sim

Boys' name

Hearkening, listening, through Sym

Sim has been given to 1,933 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1918, with 40 recorded.

Babies named Sim, 2010

1 in 739,000

Sim over time, 1880–2025

Boys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Sim: meaning, origin, and history

Hearkening, listening, through Sym

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Sim means

Sim belongs to the name family reached through Sim → Sym → Simeon → Simeōn. Its meaning is “hearkening, listening”.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Middle English Sym, diminutive of Simeon and Simon.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Sim (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Sim is used in English and Vietnamese.

Sim comes through Middle English Sym and Indonesian name.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Simeon, Sym and Simeōn.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Sim is pronounced /sɪm/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,933 boys were recorded with the name Sim between 1880 and 2010. Its highest annual count was 40 in 1918; its best national rank was #305 in 1882.

How common is Sim?

Sim had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2010, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2010
1 in 739,000
5 of 3,695,928 births
Among boys only
1 in 384,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2010
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
512,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Sim 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 2010 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 512,366 children born in 2010 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Sim. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Sims were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Sim was born before 1926 — so the typical Sim is around 99 today.

Median birth year
1926
About 99 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
16.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.1%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
433
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 16.1% of all recorded uses (312).

Is Sim 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 1918 (40)
Years since peak
107
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#305
1882

Where Sim is used

Across 1910–2025, Sim was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 161,775 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 33,333
  2. 2Alabama1 in 50,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 50,000
  4. 4North Carolina1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in —
  6. 6Kentucky1 in —
  7. 7Louisiana1 in —
  8. 8South Carolina1 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. Sim has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Sim around the world

Where Sim 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.

  • France
    2006–2006
    #4,727
    in 2006

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Sim 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
#305
1882
Peak year
1918
40 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2010
All-time count
1,933
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Sim

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

SimchaAsimSimsQasimKasimMaksimSimeonSimbaAasimSimmieNasimJasimBasimSimoneSimonKassimSimuelSimpsonWassimNissimNassimSimirSimranSimar

Sibling names for Sim

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 Sim

Top names of 1918, Sim's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Boys' names starting with S