Damali
A feminine name meaning "beautiful, wonderful" in East African languages.
Name Census estimates that about 319 living Americans carry the first name Damali. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Damali today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damali births was 1972 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damali. 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
319
~ 1 in 1,074,465 Americans
Peak year
1972
29 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,855
Tracked since 1971
Census
Damali in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 407 people with the first name Damali, which placed it at #23,894 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
#23,894
National first-name rank
People counted
407
407 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damali
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damali is Black at 77.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Damali 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 Damali at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.1% · 314
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 57
- Two or more races4.2% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 6
- White1.2% · 5
Popularity
Damali: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damali from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 117 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
Damali 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 Damali during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damalis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Damali, while Michigan, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damali
The name Damali is of African origin, specifically from the Kiswahili language spoken in East Africa. It is derived from the Arabic word "dhamal," which means "beauty" or "beautiful one." The name is believed to have originated in the region around the 7th century AD, during the spread of Islamic culture and the Arabic language along the East African coast.
Damali was a popular name among the Swahili people of present-day Kenya, Tanzania, and parts of Mozambique. It was often given to daughters as a way of expressing the parents' hope for their child to grow up to be a beautiful and graceful woman, both inside and out.
In ancient Swahili literature and poetry, the name Damali is frequently used as a metaphor for a beloved or a woman of great beauty and virtue. Some of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the works of renowned Swahili poets and writers from the 16th and 17th centuries.
One of the most famous historical figures with the name Damali was Damali Mbikiwa, a Tanzanian singer and songwriter who was born in 1949 and passed away in 2005. She was known for her powerful voice and her contributions to the traditional Taarab music genre.
Another notable Damali was Damali Ayo (1963-2017), a renowned American author and playwright who wrote extensively about the African diaspora experience. Her works explored themes of identity, spirituality, and the resilience of the human spirit.
In the 19th century, Damali Nabudere (1833-1896) was a prominent leader of the Baganda people in present-day Uganda. She played a significant role in preserving the cultural traditions and customs of her people during the colonial era.
Damali Mukhaye (1924-2002) was a Ugandan politician and women's rights activist who served as a member of parliament and advocated for gender equality and education for girls.
Damali Abrams (born 1973) is a modern-day American artist and illustrator known for her vibrant and empowering depictions of Black women and girls. Her work celebrates the beauty and strength of the African diaspora.
People
Damali + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damali as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Damali: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damali?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 319 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damali 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 1,074,465 US residents.
Is Damali a common name?
We classify Damali as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 338 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damali most popular?
The single biggest year for Damali was 1972, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damali is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damali in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 407 people with the name Damali, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,894 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 Damali 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 Damali?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damali leans strongly female. 376 people counted with this name were female (94.0%), compared with 24 male bearers (6.0%). 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 Damali?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damali is Black at 77.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Damali most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Damali in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.1% (314 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 Damali in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damali a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Damali 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 Damali still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damali 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 Damali 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 Americans are named Damali?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.