Abdullahi
Servant of the Most High, related to Arabic personal names.
Name Census estimates that about 1,785 living Americans carry the first name Abdullahi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdullahi today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdullahi births was 2013 (113 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdullahi. 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 Abdullahi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Abdullahi 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
1.8K
~ 1 in 192,019 Americans
Peak year
2013
113 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,415
Tracked since 1993
Census
Abdullahi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,101 people with the first name Abdullahi, which placed it at #5,508 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
#5,508
National first-name rank
People counted
3.1K
3,101 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 Abdullahi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdullahi is Black at 98.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and Hispanic (0.4%). 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 Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American98.2% · 3,044
- Two or more races0.8% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 11
- White0.3% · 9
Popularity
Abdullahi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdullahi 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 903 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abdullahi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abdullahis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Minnesota, Ohio, Washington recorded the most babies named Abdullahi, while Nebraska, Massachusetts, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 99 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdullahi
The given name Abdullahi is of Arabic origin and has its roots in the Islamic faith. It is a combination of two words, "Abd" meaning servant or slave, and "Allah" meaning God. Therefore, the name Abdullahi translates to "servant of Allah" or "slave of God."
This name gained prominence during the early days of Islam, particularly in the 7th century, as it reflected the devotion and submission of believers to the one God, Allah. It was a common practice among Muslims to name their children with names that carried religious significance and expressed their faith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abdullahi can be found in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. There are numerous references to individuals who were referred to as "Abd Allah," which is the Arabic version of the name Abdullahi.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Abdullahi. One of the most prominent was Abdullahi ibn Abi Qahafa, commonly known as Abu Bakr, who was a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Caliph of the Islamic empire after the Prophet's death, ruling from 632 to 634 CE.
Another significant figure was Abdullahi ibn Mas'ud, a revered companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the earliest scholars of Islam. He was highly respected for his knowledge of the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet, and played a crucial role in preserving and transmitting Islamic traditions.
In the 18th century, Abdullahi Dan Fodio, a prominent Islamic scholar and revolutionary, led a successful jihad against the Hausa rulers of northern Nigeria. He established the Sokoto Caliphate, a powerful Islamic empire that ruled over a large part of present-day Nigeria and neighboring regions.
In the modern era, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was a prominent Somali politician and military leader who served as the second President of Somalia from 2004 to 2008, playing a significant role in the country's transition to democracy.
Another notable figure was Abdullahi Ibrahim al-Houthi, a Zaidi-Shia religious leader and founder of the Houthi movement in Yemen, which has been engaged in an ongoing conflict with the Yemeni government and its allies since 2014.
People
Abdullahi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdullahi 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
Abdullahi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdullahi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,785 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdullahi 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 192,019 US residents.
Is Abdullahi a common name?
We classify Abdullahi as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,802 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdullahi most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdullahi was 2013, when 113 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,101 people with the name Abdullahi, or 1.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,508 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 Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdullahi appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,108 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Abdullahi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdullahi is Black at 98.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.8%) and Hispanic (0.4%). 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 Abdullahi most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abdullahi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 98.2% (3,044 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 Abdullahi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdullahi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi 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 Abdullahi?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.