Simon

Meaning of Simon

Simon, descending from the Hebrew Šimʿōn—“he has heard” and rendered in the Vulgate as Simon, Simonis—carries an aural echo of attentive listening that has reverberated from biblical antiquity through the cloisters of medieval Europe and into modern civil registries. Classical Greek transliteration (Σίμων) introduced the name to the Greco-Roman world, where it acquired intellectual gravitas, not least because the apostle Peter bore it before receiving his honorific “rock,” and because a later Simon—surnamed Maccabeus—anchored the Hasmonean revolt; in both cases one encounters figures who, like sentinels, stand ready to “hear” and act. The name subsequently migrated through the Romance tongues—Simone in Italian, Simón in Spanish, Simão in Portuguese—absorbing a certain Latin suavitas while remaining phonetically concise in English (SY-mən). In the United States, archival data reveal a remarkably consistent mid-tier presence: since 1900 Simon has oscillated mostly between ranks 120 and 480, hovering around the 240th position in the past decade, a statistical stability that suggests enduring rather than fleeting appeal. Thus, prospective parents find in Simon a designation that is at once scripturally resonant, cross-cultural, and demographically steady—a modest yet luminous thread woven through the broad tapestry of onomastic history.

Pronunciation

English

• Pronunced as SY-mən (/ˈsaɪmən/)

• Simeon
• Silas
• Samuel
• Solomon
• Seamus
• Simba