Abdirahman
Somali name meaning "servant of the Most Merciful (Allah)".
Name Census estimates that about 2,119 living Americans carry the first name Abdirahman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdirahman today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdirahman births was 2013 (141 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdirahman. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Abdirahman with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Abdirahman is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 161,753 Americans
Peak year
2013
141 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,665
Tracked since 1994
Census
Abdirahman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,937 people with the first name Abdirahman, which placed it at #5,718 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,718
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,937 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
98.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdirahman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdirahman is Black at 98.2%. The next largest groups are White (0.7%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Abdirahman described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Abdirahman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American98.2% · 2,884
- White0.7% · 22
- Two or more races0.6% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.1% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Abdirahman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdirahman from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,118 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdirahman by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Abdirahman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abdirahmans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Minnesota, Ohio, Washington recorded the most babies named Abdirahman, while New York, Missouri, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 118 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdirahman
The name Abdirahman is a popular given name in the Somali culture, originating from the Arabic language. It is a compound name, consisting of the Arabic words "abd" meaning "servant" and "rahman" meaning "the most merciful," referring to God. The name can be translated to mean "servant of the Most Merciful."
Historically, the name has been used in the Horn of Africa region, particularly in Somalia, where the Somali people have a strong Islamic heritage and Arabic linguistic influence. The use of the name can be traced back to the early days of Islam's spread in the region, around the 7th century CE.
In Islamic tradition, the name Abdirahman is mentioned in various religious texts and scriptures, as it reflects the reverence and submission to God, a central belief in Islam. The name has been popular among Muslim communities worldwide, including in the Middle East and North Africa.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Abdirahman can be found in the historical chronicles of the Adal Sultanate, a medieval Muslim empire that existed in the Horn of Africa from the 9th to the 16th century. During this period, several prominent figures bore the name, including Abdirahman bin Ismail, a 14th-century Sultan of Adal.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Abdirahman. Some examples include:
1. Abdirahman Al-Jaylani (1077-1166), a renowned Sufi saint and scholar from present-day Iraq, founder of the Qadiriyya Sufi order.
2. Abdirahman Nur Sayd (1854-1920), a prominent Somali religious leader and warrior who fought against the colonial powers in the late 19th century.
3. Abdirahman Moallim Abdullahi (1919-1989), a Somali politician and the first President of the Supreme Revolutionary Council of Somalia from 1969 to 1976.
4. Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame (1921-1981), a Somali politician and the second President of Somalia from 1967 to 1969.
5. Abdirahman Aidid (1919-2016), a Somali military officer and the son of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former President of Somalia.
The name Abdirahman continues to be widely used in Somali communities and among Muslims worldwide, reflecting its deep-rooted cultural and religious significance.
People
Abdirahman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdirahman as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Abdirahman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdirahman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,119 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdirahman going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 161,753 US residents.
Is Abdirahman a common name?
We classify Abdirahman as "Rare". It ranks above 93.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,139 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdirahman most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdirahman was 2013, when 141 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdirahman is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdirahman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,937 people with the name Abdirahman, or 0.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,718 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Abdirahman in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Abdirahman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdirahman appears almost entirely male. Of the 2,930 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Abdirahman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdirahman is Black at 98.2%. The next largest groups are White (0.7%) and Two or More Races (0.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Abdirahman most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abdirahman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.2% (2,884 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Abdirahman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdirahman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdirahman in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Abdirahman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdirahman in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Abdirahman can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Abdirahman?
You can see how many Americans are named Abdirahman on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.