Salih
An Arabic and Turkish name meaning virtuous or righteous. It stays rare in Poland: about a hundred men carry it, all of them male, and only a boy or two a year get it now.
Salih Pronunciation
Salih is pronounced SAH-leekh (/ˈsalix/).
What Salih means
Where Salih comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Salih belongs to Arabic and Turkish naming traditions, and it means virtuous, righteous. The Arabic word ṣāliḥ describes a person who does good and acts uprightly, and the name draws its sense directly from that word.
Islam gives the name a famous bearer. Salih is a prophet named in the Quran, sent to the people of Thamud, and his story is retold across the Muslim world. A boy called Salih shares his name with a figure known to millions.
In Turkey the name has stayed common for generations. Salih Zeki, an Ottoman mathematician and historian of science, carried it into the record books. He died in 1921, and the name kept its place.
The meaning sits close to the surface. Righteousness here is the plain word. No gloss was added afterward. A Polish child named Salih would stand out on a class register in Gdańsk. The name points to a family with Arab or Turkish roots, and its sense, prawość, follows the child to every reading of the list.
How many people are named Salih
1 in 209276 men in Poland is named Salih. 102 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3412 among male names.
Salih's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.
Where parents choose Salih
Salih is most popular in Masovian, 510% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025).
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Masovian
+510%1 in 177,133 babies
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Masovian+510% 2 born1 in 177,133 babies+510%
Salih as a middle name
Salih is a first name for 102 men in Poland and a middle name for another 36, a 74/26 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 1362nd, between Riccardo (36) and Shane (36).
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#1360 Ravindra36
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#1361 Riccardo36
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#1362 Salih36
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#1363 Shane36
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#1364 Sherif36