Amel
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "hope" or "dream".
Name Census estimates that about 881 living Americans carry the first name Amel. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Amel today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amel births was 2000 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amel. 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.
Key insights
- • Amel sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
881
~ 1 in 389,051 Americans
Peak year
2000
41 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,968
Tracked since 1914
Gender
Gender distribution for Amel
Amel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,081 total registrations, 621 (57.4%) were male and 460 (42.6%) were female.
Amel as a male name
- Ranked #8,327 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (21 births)
Amel as a female name
- Ranked #7,968 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (24 births)
Popularity
Amel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 300 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Amel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amel 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 Amel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, Texas, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Amel, while New Jersey, Texas, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amel
The name Amel is derived from the Arabic word 'amal', which means 'hope' or 'aspiration'. Its origins can be traced back to the Middle East and the Islamic world, where it was commonly used as a name for both boys and girls. The earliest recorded instances of the name date back to the 7th century AD, during the time of the Islamic conquests and the spread of the Arabic language across the region.
One of the earliest known historical figures to bear the name Amel was Amel ibn al-Mundhir, a 7th-century Arab poet and warrior from the Ghassanid kingdom, which ruled parts of modern-day Syria and Jordan. He was renowned for his martial prowess and his poetic talents, which were celebrated in the court of the Ghassanid rulers.
In the 9th century, Amel ibn Idris al-Khurasani was a prominent Islamic scholar and jurist from Khurasan, a historical region that encompassed parts of modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. He was known for his contributions to the study of Islamic jurisprudence and his works on the interpretation of the Quran.
During the 12th century, Amel al-Din al-Bukhari was a renowned Persian poet and mystic who lived in the city of Bukhara, which was then part of the Khwarazmian Empire. His poetry, deeply influenced by Sufism, explored themes of spirituality, love, and devotion to God.
In the 14th century, Amel al-Mulk Mirza was a prominent Persian prince and statesman who served as the governor of various provinces under the Timurid Empire. He was renowned for his patronage of the arts and his support for poets and scholars at his court.
One of the most famous historical figures to bear the name Amel was Amel Kadic, a Bosnian woman who gained international recognition for her role in the landmark legal case against Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb leaders accused of genocide during the Bosnian War. Kadic's case, filed in 1993, paved the way for future human rights litigation against state and non-state actors in international courts.
While the name Amel has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has since been adopted and used in various parts of the world, transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries.
People
Amel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amel 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
Amel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 881 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amel 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 389,051 US residents.
Is Amel a common name?
We classify Amel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,081 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amel most popular?
The single biggest year for Amel was 2000, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amel is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Amel a male name?
Yes, 57.4% of people registered as Amel 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.
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.