Solomon
A masculine given name of Hebrew origin meaning "peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 27,589 living Americans carry the first name Solomon. It sits at #417 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Solomon today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Solomon births was 2016 (904 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Solomon. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Solomon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
28K
~ 1 in 12,424 Americans
Peak year
2016
904 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#417
Tracked since 1880
Census
Solomon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 26,001 people with the first name Solomon, which placed it at #1,371 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,371
National first-name rank
People counted
26K
26,001 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
8.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
41.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Solomon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Solomon is Black at 41.4%. The next largest groups are White (34.6%) and Hispanic (9.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Solomon described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Solomon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American41.4% · 10,757
- White34.6% · 9,001
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 2,459
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 1,794
- Two or more races6.8% · 1,756
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 234
Gender
Gender distribution for Solomon
Out of the 37,295 babies given the name Solomon since 1880, 100.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Solomon as a male name
- Ranked #417 in 2024
- 765 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (904 births)
Solomon as a female name
- Ranked #13,600 in 1988
- 5 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1976 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Solomon appears almost entirely male. Of the 25,997 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Solomon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Solomon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 7,591 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Solomon remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Solomon by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Solomon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Solomons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Solomon, while Rhode Island, South Dakota, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 661 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Solomon
The name Solomon has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, tracing back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew words "shalom," meaning peace, and the theophoric element "yah" referring to God. The name translates to "peaceful" or "the peaceful one."
In the Hebrew Bible, Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba, renowned for his wisdom, wealth, and the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. He is a significant figure in the Old Testament, and his reign is described in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. The name Solomon is closely associated with this biblical figure and his legendary wisdom.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Solomon is found in the Old Testament, where it is mentioned numerous times. The name gained popularity among Jews and later among Christians due to its biblical significance. It has been used throughout history by various individuals, including several notable figures.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Solomon was King Solomon, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, who reigned from around 970 to 931 BCE. He is celebrated for his wisdom, wealth, and the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
Another notable figure with the name Solomon was Solomon ibn Gabirol, a renowned medieval Hebrew poet and philosopher born in Malaga, Spain, around 1021 CE. He is considered one of the greatest poets of the Hebrew Golden Age and made significant contributions to Jewish philosophy.
In the 16th century, Solomon Luria, also known as the Maharshal, was a prominent Jewish rabbi and scholar born in Poznan, Poland, in 1510. He was a renowned Talmudic scholar and authored several influential works on Jewish law and philosophy.
In the 18th century, Solomon Maimon was a influential Jewish philosopher born in Belarus in 1754. He is recognized for his contributions to the Enlightenment and his work on the philosophy of religion and ethics.
In the 19th century, Solomon Schechter was a prominent Jewish scholar, rabbi, and educator born in Romania in 1847. He played a crucial role in the development of Conservative Judaism and was instrumental in the discovery and study of the Cairo Geniza, a collection of Jewish manuscripts from the Middle Ages.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Solomon, reflecting its deep roots in the Hebrew tradition and its enduring significance across various cultures and time periods.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Solomon
People
Solomon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Solomon as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Solomon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Solomon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27,589 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Solomon going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 12,424 US residents.
Is Solomon a common name?
We classify Solomon as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 37,295 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Solomon most popular?
The single biggest year for Solomon was 2016, when 904 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Solomon is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Solomon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 26,001 people with the name Solomon, or 8.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,371 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Solomon in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Solomon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Solomon appears almost entirely male. Of the 25,997 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Solomon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Solomon is Black at 41.4%. The next largest groups are White (34.6%) and Hispanic (9.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Solomon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Solomon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.4% (10,757 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Solomon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Solomon a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Solomon in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Solomon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Solomon in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Solomon can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Solomon?
You can see how many people share the name Solomon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.