Given name & surname · also Turkish
Cem
Cem is a masculine given name from Ottoman Turkish, ultimately from Classical Persian. It is used in Turkish.
Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
Cem comes from Ottoman Turkish, and ultimately from Classical Persian.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Ottoman Turkish جم (Cem), from Classical Persian جم (jam).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1982. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cem through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 109
- 109 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2005
- 10 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2024. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 10 in 2005. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 608 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cem’s family of names
Inner ring: spellings · outer: across languages.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Cem
- Cem ÖzdemirGerman environmentalist and statesperson (born 1965)
- Cem SultanOttoman prince and pretender at the throne1459–1495
- Cem YılmazTurkish actor and screenwriter (born 1973)
- Cem AdrianTurkish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer (born 1980)
- Cem BölükbaşıTurkish race driver (born 1998)
- Cem KızıltuğTurkish illustrator (born 1974)
- Cem UzanTurkish businessperson (born 1960)
- Cem YıldırımTurkish mathematician (born 1961)
- Cem İlkelTurkish tennis player (born 1995)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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