Attallah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "gift of God".
Name Census estimates that about 58 living Americans carry the first name Attallah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Attallah today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Attallah births was 1993 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Attallah. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Attallah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
58
~ 1 in 5,909,558 Americans
Peak year
1993
13 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2021 SSA rank
#15,552
Tracked since 1986
Census
Attallah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 124 people with the first name Attallah, which placed it at #49,647 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
#49,647
National first-name rank
People counted
124
124 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
79.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Attallah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Attallah is Black at 79.8%. The next largest groups are White (13.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Attallah 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 Attallah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American79.8% · 99
- White13.7% · 17
- Two or more races5.6% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 1
Popularity
Attallah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Attallah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 50 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Attallah 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 Attallah 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 Attallah
The name Attallah is of Arabic origin, believed to have derived from the term "Allah" which means "God" in Arabic. The name has been in use since ancient times, primarily among Muslim communities in the Middle East and North Africa.
The earliest recorded use of the name Attallah can be traced back to the 7th century CE, during the rise of Islam and the spread of Arabic culture. It is believed that the name was initially given to individuals as a symbol of their devotion to the Islamic faith and their reverence for the divine.
One of the earliest known historical figures bearing the name Attallah was Attallah ibn Abi Mansur, a prominent scholar and poet who lived in the 9th century CE in present-day Iraq. He was renowned for his contributions to Arabic literature and his mastery of the Arabic language.
In the 11th century CE, Attallah al-Husseini, a renowned Sufi mystic and scholar, gained prominence in Cairo, Egypt. He was widely respected for his teachings on Islamic spirituality and his efforts to promote peace and harmony among diverse communities.
During the Mamluk period in Egypt, which lasted from the 13th to the 16th centuries, the name Attallah was particularly popular among the ruling elite. One notable figure was Attallah al-Malik, a high-ranking official and military commander who served under the Mamluk sultans.
In more recent history, Attallah Abbas, an Egyptian politician and diplomat, played a significant role in the post-colonial era. Born in 1898, he served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 1940 to 1944 and was instrumental in shaping the country's foreign policy during a turbulent period.
Another prominent figure was Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. Born in 1958, she became an author and activist, carrying on her father's legacy of advocating for civil rights and social justice.
While the name Attallah is predominantly associated with the Arab and Muslim world, it has also been adopted by individuals from other cultural backgrounds, particularly in regions influenced by Arabic culture and language.
People
Attallah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Attallah 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
Attallah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Attallah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 58 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Attallah 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 5,909,558 US residents.
Is Attallah a common name?
We classify Attallah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 60 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Attallah most popular?
The single biggest year for Attallah was 1993, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Attallah is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Attallah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 124 people with the name Attallah, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #49,647 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 Attallah 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 Attallah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Attallah leans strongly female. 110 people counted with this name were female (87.3%), compared with 16 male bearers (12.7%). 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 Attallah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Attallah is Black at 79.8%. The next largest groups are White (13.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Attallah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Attallah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.8% (99 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 Attallah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Attallah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Attallah in the SSA data are female. 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 Attallah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Attallah 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 Attallah 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 called Attallah?
See how many people have the name Attallah on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.