Given name & surname
Saddam
“a powerful ruler; the crusher”
Saddam is used as a given name and a surname. One Arabic interpretation is “a powerful ruler; the crusher.”
Original Arabicصَدَّام
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Arabic interpretation is “a powerful ruler; the crusher.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Arabic.
How it developed
A transliteration of Arabic صَدَّام; its root is Arabic ص د م.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1990. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Saddam through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 47
- 47 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1990
- 15 babies
- 2025
- 5
- #13,529 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 13,529 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Its largest published annual count for boys was 15 in 1990. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 239 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.
Saddam’s family of names
In English usage, Saddam has a conventional equivalent in the Dutch form Saddam Hoessein. Saddam has a related form in Saddim. Saddam has a related form in Saddum.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Saddam has relatives in 18 languages. Lines run from its Arabic roots to each of them.
Arabicwhere Saddam comes from · 2 names
Nicknames & forms 3
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 22
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Saddam
- Saddam HusseinIraqi politician and revolutionary, president of Iraq from 1979 to 20031937–2006
- Saddam KamelIraqi defector (1960–1996)
- Saddam HussainPakistani footballerborn 1993
- Saddam HaftarLibyan politician (born 1991)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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