Abdula
An Arabic name meaning "servant of God" or "worshipper of God".
Name Census estimates that about 37 living Americans carry the first name Abdula. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdula today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdula births was 1976 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdula. 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 Abdula with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Abdula. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
37
~ 1 in 9,263,631 Americans
Peak year
1976
9 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2000 SSA rank
#10,357
Tracked since 1975
Census
Abdula in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 274 people with the first name Abdula, which placed it at #31,306 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
#31,306
National first-name rank
People counted
274
274 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdula
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdula is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Black (31.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.7%). 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 Abdula 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 Abdula at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.6% · 125
- Black or African American31.0% · 85
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.7% · 32
- Two or more races6.9% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 13
Popularity
Abdula: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdula from the 1970s through to the 2000s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 29 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
Abdula 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 Abdula 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 Abdula
The name Abdula has its origins in Arabic, derived from the root word "Abd" meaning "servant" and the word "Allah" referring to God in Islam. This combination translates to "servant of God" or "servant of the Almighty." The name's origins can be traced back to the 7th century, during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
Historically, the name Abdula was commonly used among Muslim communities, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of South Asia. It was considered a pious and honorable name, reflecting the bearer's devotion to their faith and submission to the divine.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abdula can be found in the chronicles of the Umayyad Caliphate, where an influential scholar and legal expert named Abdula ibn al-Qasim (695-737 CE) played a significant role in shaping Islamic jurisprudence.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Abdula. One prominent figure was Abdula ibn Wahb (751-811 CE), a renowned Muslim scholar and hadith collector from Egypt. His contributions to the preservation and transmission of Islamic traditions were highly esteemed.
In the 12th century, Abdula al-Ghafiqi (1135-1199 CE) was a celebrated poet and philosopher from Andalusia, known for his mastery of Arabic literature and his influence on the intellectual circles of the time.
During the Ottoman Empire, Abdula Pasha (1553-1638 CE) was a prominent military commander and statesman who served as the Grand Vizier, the highest-ranking political advisor to the Sultan.
In more recent times, Abdula Yusuf Ali (1872-1953 CE) was a British-Indian Muslim scholar and translator, renowned for his English translation of the Quran and his extensive works on Islamic literature.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have carried the name Abdula, each contributing to various fields and leaving a lasting impact on their respective communities and societies.
People
Abdula + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdula 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
Abdula: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdula?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdula 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 9,263,631 US residents.
Is Abdula a common name?
We classify Abdula as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 39 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdula most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdula was 1976, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdula is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdula in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 274 people with the name Abdula, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,306 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 Abdula 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 Abdula?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdula leans strongly male. 268 people counted with this name were male (94.7%), compared with 15 female bearers (5.3%). 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 Abdula?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdula is White at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Black (31.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.7%). 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 Abdula most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Abdula in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.6% (125 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 Abdula in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdula a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdula 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 Abdula still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdula 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 Abdula 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 have Abdula as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Abdula, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.