Abdu
Servant, worshiper of Allah in the Arabic language.
Name Census estimates that about 30 living Americans carry the first name Abdu. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdu today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdu births was 1974 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdu. 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 Abdu with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Abdu. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
30
~ 1 in 11,425,145 Americans
Peak year
1974
10 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2012 SSA rank
#10,783
Tracked since 1973
Census
Abdu in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 458 people with the first name Abdu, which placed it at #21,926 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
#21,926
National first-name rank
People counted
458
458 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdu
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdu is Black at 56.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.0%). 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 Abdu 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 Abdu at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.8% · 260
- White27.1% · 124
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.0% · 32
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 28
- Two or more races3.1% · 14
Popularity
Abdu: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdu from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 21 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdu 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 Abdu during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdu
The name Abdu has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Arabic word "Abd," which means "servant" or "slave." The name is often combined with another word, such as "Allah" or the name of a deity, to form a compound name like "Abdallah" (servant of Allah) or "Abdu'r-Rahman" (servant of the Most Merciful).
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abdu can be found in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam. The Quran mentions several individuals with names that begin with "Abd," such as Abdullah ibn Masud, a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad and an authority on the interpretation of the Quran.
In early Islamic history, the name Abdu was commonly used by Arabs and Muslims, reflecting the religious and cultural significance of the name. One of the most famous historical figures with the name Abdu is Abdu'r-Rahman I, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty in Spain, who reigned from 756 to 788 CE.
Another notable figure is Abdu'l-Qadir al-Jilani, a renowned Sunni Muslim scholar and Sufi mystic who lived from 1077 to 1166 CE. He was widely respected for his teachings and is considered a spiritual guide by many Sufis.
In the realm of literature, Abdu'l-Malik bin Marwan was an Umayyad caliph who ruled from 685 to 705 CE. He is credited with introducing Arabic as the official language of the Islamic empire and promoting the development of Arabic literature.
Abdu'l-Ahad Dawlatzahi, born in 1853 and died in 1920, was a prominent Iranian poet and writer who played a significant role in the literary renaissance of Iran during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Abdu'l-Baha, born in 1844 and died in 1921, was the son of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith. He played a crucial role in spreading the teachings of the Baha'i Faith and is revered as a central figure in the religion.
While the name Abdu has its origins in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended linguistic and religious boundaries and is now used by people of various backgrounds and cultures around the world.
People
Abdu + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdu 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
Abdu: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdu?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 30 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdu 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 11,425,145 US residents.
Is Abdu a common name?
We classify Abdu as "Very Rare". It ranks above 46.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdu most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdu was 1974, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdu is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdu in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 458 people with the name Abdu, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,926 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 Abdu 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 Abdu?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdu appears almost entirely male. Of the 457 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Abdu?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdu is Black at 56.8%. The next largest groups are White (27.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.0%). 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 Abdu most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abdu in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.8% (260 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 Abdu in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdu a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdu 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 Abdu still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdu 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 Abdu 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 are named Abdu?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.