Camilah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "perfect one" or "full of grace".
Name Census estimates that about 310 living Americans carry the first name Camilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Camilah today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Camilah births was 2020 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Camilah. 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.
People living today
310
~ 1 in 1,105,659 Americans
Peak year
2020
29 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,517
Tracked since 2007
Popularity
Camilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Camilah from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 194 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Camilah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Camilah 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 Camilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Camilahs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Camilah
Camilah is a feminine given name of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "kamala" meaning "perfection" or "completion." The name is believed to have originated in the Middle East during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries AD.
The name Camilah can be found in early Islamic literature and texts, particularly in Arabic poetry and writings. It was often used to describe a woman of great beauty, grace, and virtue. The name's association with perfection and completeness likely stems from its roots in the Arabic language.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Camilah can be found in the work of the renowned Persian poet Hafez, who lived from 1315 to 1390 AD. In his poetry, Hafez often used the name Camilah as a symbolic representation of divine love and spiritual beauty.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Camilah. One such person was Camilah Al-Fihri (born around 859 AD), a Muslim woman from Tunisia who founded the world's first degree-granting university, the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco.
Another famous Camilah was Camilah Shamsuddin (1924-2018), an Egyptian feminist and author who advocated for women's rights and education in the Middle East. She wrote several books on women's issues and was a recipient of the prestigious Sultan Qaboos Prize for Culture, Arts and Literature.
In the realm of literature, Camilah is the name of a character in the famous Arabic novel "The Cairo Trilogy" by Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer. The character Camilah is portrayed as a strong-willed and independent woman navigating the societal norms of early 20th century Egypt.
Another notable Camilah was Camilah Helminski (born 1940), an American author and teacher of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. She has written several books on Sufism and has been influential in introducing its teachings to Western audiences.
Camilah El Moudden (born 1943) is a Moroccan-French writer and journalist who has published numerous works exploring themes of identity, culture, and the experiences of women in the Arab world.
People
Camilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Camilah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Camilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Camilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 310 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Camilah 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 1,105,659 US residents.
Is Camilah a common name?
We classify Camilah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 312 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Camilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Camilah was 2020, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Camilah is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Camilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Camilah 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.
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.