Zalman (Yiddish: זלמן) is a male first name, a Yiddish-language variant of Solomon that is also pronounced Salamon.
The name was common among East European Jews, and it still has usage in many Haredi and especially Hasidic communities all over the world. Some of the founders of modern Israel bore this name, including Zalman Shazar, third President of Israel. In present-day modern secular circles in Israel the name is not common, being identified as "a diaspora name".
In English-speaking countries, the name is sometimes abbreviated to "zal", which is not attested in Israel.
"Zalman" has been claimed by some to be ethimologically related to the Pashtun name "Zalmeh","Zalmai" or "Zalmay"; the latter is a name among the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
People named "Zalman" include:
Zalman Aran, Zionist activist, educator and Israeli politician (also Zalman Aranne)
Zinovy Gerdt (born Zalman Khrapinovich), Soviet/Russian theatre and cinema actor
Zalman Grinberg, Lithuanian/Israeli/American doctor, Holocaust survivor
Zalman King, American film director, writer, actor and producer
Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries, TV series by the above
Zalman Kornblit, Romanian Jewish playwright
Zalman Teitelbaum, one of two Grand Rebbes of the Satmar Hasidim (full name Zalman Leib Teitelbaum or Zalman Leib Yekusiel Yehudah Teitelbaum)
Zalman Melamed, Israeli settler Rabbi (full name Zalman Baruch Melamed)
Zalman Moishe HaYitzchaki, Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi (known familiarly as "Reb Zalman Moishe")
Zalman Nechemia Goldberg, Israeli Rabbi
Zalman Schachter, Polish-born American Rabbi (full name Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)
Zalman Schocken, German Jeweish, (later Israeli) publisher
Zalman Shazar, President of Israel
Zalman Shazar Junior High School, named for the above
Zalman Shmotkin, spokesman for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement
Zalman Shoval, Isralei politician and diplomat
Zalman Shragai, Mayor of Jerusalem
Zalman Sorotzkin, East European (later Israeli) Rabbi
Zalman Usiskin, American mathematician
Zalman Yanovsky, Canadian rock musician (also Zal Yanovsky)
The compound "Shneur Zalman" is common among people of Hasidic Chabad affiliation, derived from their founder Shneur Zalman of Liadi.
