Absalom

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Boy · Hebrew

Absalom

Say it: AB-suh-lum

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Hebrew Avshalom, 'my father is peace'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Used in medieval Denmark and occasionally in early American records.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

024618801900192019401960198020002020Peak 2017per million babies of that sex
  • 180 babies given this name since 1971
  • At its height in 2017, about 1 in 184,600 boys
  • 7 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
  2. The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
  3. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  4. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800

Used by

HebrewEarly ChristianEnglishDanish

The family of the name

Other spellings: Absolom, Absolon, Absalon

FrenchAbsalon
SpanishAbsalón
ItalianAssalonne
DanishAbsalon
HebrewAvshalom

Famous bearers

  • Absalom, son of King David
  • Absalon, 12th-century archbishop of Lund and founder of Copenhagen
  • Absolon, the parish clerk in Chaucer's Miller's Tale

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
  • Medieval European charters and records
  • Colonial records of the Americas
  • Well-known works of literature
  • English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.