How popular is the baby name Salimah in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Salimah.

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Popularity of the baby name Salimah


Posts that mention the name Salimah

Where did the baby name Inaara come from in 1998?

Inaara Aga Khan and Karim Aga Khan (in 2002)
Inaara Aga Khan & Karim Aga Khan

The names Inaara and Inara both popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in 1998:

Girls named InaaraGirls named Inara
2000148
19991311
199828*†8*
1997..
1996..
*Debut, †Peak usage

Why?

Because of a royal wedding!

In May of 1998, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV — who had divorced Salimah in 1995 — remarried. His new bride was German attorney and divorcée Gabriele zu Leiningen. (She’d grown up as Gabriele Thyssen*.)

With her second marriage, she became known as Inaara Aga Khan:

On her conversion to Islam, she and the Aga Khan chose for her the Muslim name Inaara, derived from the Arabic word “nur,” meaning “light.”

What are your thoughts on the name Inaara? (Do you like it more or less than Salimah?)

*Her childhood surname came from her stepfather, industrialist Bodo Thyssen, whose interesting first name can be traced back to the Germanic element bod, meaning either “commander” or “messenger.”

Sources:

Where did the baby name Salimah come from in 1969?

Salimah Aga Khan and Karim Aga Khan (in 1969)
Salimah Aga Khan & Karim Aga Khan

The names Salima and Salimah popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in 1969:

Girls named SalimaGirls named Salimah
19717.
19705.
19696*5*
1968..
1967..
*Debut

The masculine form of the name, Salim (also spelled Saleem), had emerged in the data earlier in the ’60s. But this doesn’t account for the sudden appearance of both Salima and Salimah.

What does?

A royal wedding!

In October of 1969, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV — the Imam of the Nizari branch of Ismaili Muslims — married British divorcée and former fashion model Lady Sarah Crichton-Stuart. (She’d been born in British India in 1940 as Sarah “Sally” Croker Poole.)

With her second marriage — and conversion to Islam — came another name change: Salimah Aga Khan. (She continued to go by the nickname Sally, though.)

Some news outlets misspelled the new name “Salima,” which is likely why this version also debuted in 1969.

The Muslim names Salim and Salimah derive from the Arabic root s-l-m, meaning “to be safe, secure.”

Do you like the name Salimah?

Sources:

P.S. Several decades earlier, the Aga Khan’s younger half-sister, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, also had a slight influence on U.S. baby names…