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Zalman

#4,854 in 2025Boys' name

Variant of Solomon

Zalman has been given to 687 babies in the U.S. since 1949. In 2025 it ranked #4,854 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 27 recorded.

Babies named Zalman, 2025

1 in 158,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Zalman: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Solomon

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Zalman means

Zalman is a variant of Solomon.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Zalman → Solomon. The family’s meaning is “peace”, recorded in English with the source elements šālōm.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Solomon.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 687 boys were recorded with the name Zalman between 1949 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 27 in 2021; its best national rank was #3,517 in 1988.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #7,024 in 2020 to #4,854 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,540 in 2015 to #4,854 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 Zalman?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 158,000
21 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 81,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,854
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
109,425 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Zalman 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 109,425 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Zalman. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Zalmans were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Zalman was born before 2006 — so the typical Zalman is around 19 today.

Median birth year
2006
About 19 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
23.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
61.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
681
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 23.6% of all recorded uses (162).

Is Zalman 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
−429
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+2,170
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−314
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.95×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
77.8%
Peak was 2021 (27)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
50.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,517
1988

Spellings of Zalman

Zalman is not the most common spelling — Alan is, with 69.6% against Zalman's 0.13%.

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 Zalman is used

Across 1910–2025, Zalman was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 33,333 boys, against 1 in 44,432 across all states with data. It was least common in New Jersey (1 in 100,000).

13 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 33,333
  2. 2New Jersey1 in 100,000

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. Zalman has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Zalman around the world

Where Zalman 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
    1998–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • France
    2020–2023
    #5,775
    in 2023
  • Canada
    2020–2020
    #2,945
    in 2020

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Zalman by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,854
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 2,170
Best rank ever
#3,517
1988
Peak year
2021
27 that year
First recorded
1949
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
687
Count in 2025
21

Names similar to Zalman

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

ZalmenZalenOthmanCaymanBowmanColmanHarmanLuqmanKalmanRahmanOusmanUthmanFermanNachmanWhitmanNamanWilmanChapmanFirmanYamanGurmanSalmanAimanZalyn

Sibling names for Zalman

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 Zalman

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