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 [ 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. The name is of 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 older 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 26 variants that are used in both English and other languages. A variant of Simon used in English is Simeon (used in French, German, Russian, and Slavic as well). The short forms Si and Sim (used in German, and Scottish as well), the pet form Simmie, and the variant spelling Symon are other English forms. Foreign variants of Simon include Samein (Arabic), Semjon (Russian), Semon (Greek), Semyon (Russian), Shimon (Hebrew and Yiddish), Siemen (Dutch and German), Simao (Portuguese), Simen (Scandinavian), Simidh (Scottish), Simion (French and Romanian), Simmy (German), Simone (Italian), Sìm (Scottish), Síomón (Irish), Symeon (Greek and Polish), 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 2008, its usage was 0.062% and its ranking #261, and it was the most popular within all boy names in its group. In 2008, Simon was more commonly used than the subsequent ranked name, Simeon (English, French, German, Russian, and Slavic), by 7 times. Baby names that sound like Simon include Saami (Arabic), Sahen, Sajan (Indian), Sajjan (Indian), Salman (Arabic, Iranian, and Turkish), Salmon (English), Samein (Arabic), Sami (Arabic, Hungarian, Iranian, Turkish, and Finnish), Samman (Arabic), Sammie (English), Sammon, Sammy (English), Samo (Czech), Samu (Hungarian), Samy (Arabic and French), Sani, Sanya (Russian), Sawney (Scottish), Sawnie (English and Scottish), and Saxon (English). Details of famous persons named Simon: 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)"   |
