Simon - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. si-mon, sim-on ] The boy name Simon is pronounced as SAYMahN ^KEY. Simon is used chiefly in the English, French, and German languages, and its origin is Hebrew. Simon has the meaning he who hears, God has heard. Biblical name derived from the element 'shama' which means to hear. Shimon (Hebrew) and Simeon (Hebrew) are original forms of Simon. The name was borne in the Old Testament of the Bible by one of the sons of Jacob and thus the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel named after him. In the New Testament, it appeared as the original name of the apostle Peter. It was also borne amongst other biblical characters, by another apostle called Simon the Zealot, the brother of Jesus, the man who helped carry Jesus' cross on the way to the crucifixion, and Simon Magus whose monetary offer to gain the power of the Holy Spirit gave rise to the term simony. In the medieval period, the forms Simon and Simeon were in regular use, but they fell into disuse after the 17th century. The modern form Simon saw a revival at the start of the 20th century. The name Simone (English, French, and German) is the female form of Simon.

Simon has 17 variants, which are mainly used in other languages. Variants of Simon include Semyon (Russian), Shimon (Hebrew), Siemen (Dutch and German), Simen (Scandinavian), Simeon (German and Slavic), Simidh (Scottish), Simone (Italian), Sìm (Scottish), Síomón (Irish), Szymon (Polish), and Ximen (Spanish). Specific foreign variants include the pet forms Siek (Czech), Simecek (Czech), Simunek (Czech), and Sionek (Czech).

Simon is popular as a baby name for boys. The name's popularity has been increasing since the 1950s. At the modest height of its usage in 2002, 0.068% of baby boys were given the name Simon. Its ranking then was #242. In 2007, its usage was 0.061% and its ranking #258, and it was the most popular within all boy names in its group. In 2007, Simon was more commonly used than the subsequent ranked name, Simeon (German and Slavic), by 6 times.

Baby names that sound like Simon include Salman (Arabic, Iranian, and Turkish), Sami (Arabic, Hungarian, Iranian, and Turkish), Sammy (English), Samu (Hungarian), Samy (Arabic and French), Sanya (Russian), Sawney (Scottish), Sawnie (Scottish), Semyon (Russian), Senán (Irish), Shannon (English), Shimon (Hebrew), Siemen (Dutch and German), Simen (Scandinavian), Simone (Italian), Sina (Arabic and Iranian), Síomón (Irish), Sonnie (English), Sonny (English), Szymon (Polish), Cemi (Albanian), Sam (English), Sean (Irish), Seanán (Irish), Sem (Dutch and German), Shane (English and Irish), Shaun (English), Shawn (English), Shayne (English), Shem (English), Shone (English), Sim (English), Simeon (German and Slavic), Sìm (Scottish), Stian (Scandinavian), Stiana (Irish), Swen (German and Scandinavian), and Cem (Arabic and Turkish).

^KEY: Pronunciation for Simon: S as in "sea (S.IY)" ; AY as in "hide (HH.AY.D)" ; M as in "me (M.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)"

Details of famous persons named Simon:
Author Simon Raven, born 28 December 1927 - 12 May 2001, London, England.
Author Simon Wiesenthal, born 31 December 1908 - 20 September 2005.
TV Personality Simon Cowell, born 7 October 1959, Brighton, England.

Popularity Trend
for Simon
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Simon
in 2007