Simon
Meaning
he has heard
Goes by Si
Famously borne by Simon Bolivar, El Libertador, whose campaigns freed five nations from Spanish rule.
The story
Simon is Hebrew for he has heard, the same listening root that Ximena carries into Spanish, and it comes with more history attached than almost any name its length: two apostles, a Peter before he was Peter, and centuries of quiet use in every European language. The American record shows a classic that never crashed, between about 2,100 and 3,200 a decade from the 1910s through the 1960s, and then a forty-year build: about 3,600 in the 1970s rising every decade to 14,900 in the 2010s, with 8,600 so far this decade, every single one of them this decade a boy. In our records the all-time count runs about 69,400 boys to 160 girls. Simple to say, impossible to misspell, backed by two millennia: Simon is what a safe choice looks like when it is also a genuinely good one.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Simon peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
3,106 people · the #3,793 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 66,667 · median age 20
Among people named Simon living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 2010s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 396 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Simon
Most people given the name Simon in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Simon deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Simon truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Simon fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Simon travels
Korean American · he has heard (the apostle Peter's original name); a quieter but steady Korean American church pick
Keep exploring
Names like Simon · Nicknames for Simon · Korean American baby names · Hebrew baby names · Names of revolutionaries and liberators
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