Salem

Pronunciation: [Sa-lem]
Gender: Male
Meaning: Peace. Biblical Name Of Ancient City Later Identified With Jerusalem.
Browse names that mean peace →
Origin: Hebrew

Salem is a boy's name of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Salem is "peace". Salem has a peaceful meaning and pleasing sound, and it is also needed at Halloween night. In America, the name has been used for many cities and towns including the capital of Oregon and the historic coastal town in Massachusetts, site of the Salem witch trials and setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale, "The House of the Seven Gables".

About the Name Salem

Salem is a Hebrew name meaning "peace," and in the Bible it appears as the name of an ancient city later identified with Jerusalem. That deep scriptural resonance gives the name a serene, weighty significance, while its soft, two-syllable sound keeps it gentle and approachable as a modern given name, balancing reverence with an easy, contemporary warmth that suits a young child well.

For some families the name also carries the atmospheric associations of the historic New England town of Salem, lending it a touch of the mysterious and the literary alongside its peaceful core meaning. This intriguing blend of the tranquil and the evocative is a large part of its contemporary appeal, giving Salem a character that feels both calming and quietly compelling.

As a boys' name, Salem is a recent arrival in the rankings: it first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2019 and reached its peak in 2023 at rank #630, with roughly 2,200 boys given the name in just a few years. It stood at #634 as recently as 2024, marking Salem as one of the rising biblically rooted boys' names of the early 2020s. Calm yet striking, the name balances its serene meaning of peace with a hint of intrigue, giving it a quiet distinctiveness that appeals to modern parents drawn to soft, soulful boys' names with depth and a touch of mystery.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Salem

1,531

Hebrew baby names in our dictionary

695

Hebrew male names

200

5-letter S-names in our dictionary

691

S-male names total

2019–2025

years of US SSA records (7 total)

6,896

total US births named Salem (all years)

US Popularity History (2019–2025)

🔥 Rising fast: Salem climbed 172 places in the US girls ranking over the last 5 years (#608 in 2020 → #436 in 2025).

Annual US births named Salem by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2023 with 734 girls named Salem (girl rank #417 that year).

Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #436 for girls (711 US births). That's 19 places below its 2023 peak.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Where in the US Is Salem Most Popular?

Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Salem the strongest states are West Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina.

Strongest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	West Virginia	#174	42
2	New Mexico	#287	21
3	North Carolina	#293	377
4	Arkansas	#339	65
5	Kentucky	#350	150
6	Tennessee	#381	188
7	Nevada	#401	55
8	Ohio	#403	179
9	Idaho	#405	28
10	Missouri	#419	117

Weakest girls-name states

#	State	Avg rank	Births
1	California	#764	307
2	Florida	#723	144
3	Minnesota	#702	39
4	Wisconsin	#675	46
5	South Carolina	#670	39
6	Maryland	#645	45
7	Texas	#641	312
8	Illinois	#626	68
9	Washington	#619	97
10	Virginia	#618	67

Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Salem in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.

Looking for names like Salem?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

See all names like Salem →

Compare Salem to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Salem against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Salem vs Olivia 210,124 births since 2014

Salem vs Emma 202,477 births since 2014

Salem vs Sophia 169,709 births since 2014

Salem vs Isabella 158,431 births since 2014

Salem vs Ava 157,356 births since 2014

Salem vs Charlotte 151,872 births since 2014

Salem vs Mia 149,779 births since 2014

Salem vs Amelia 142,728 births since 2014

Compare to a different name →