Gamel
Obscure name with unknown meaning but possibly derived from the Arabic word meaning "camel".
Name Census estimates that about 14 living Americans carry the first name Gamel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Gamel today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Gamel births was 1967 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Gamel. 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 Gamel. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
14
~ 1 in 24,482,453 Americans
Peak year
1967
5 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
1981 SSA rank
#6,608
Tracked since 1967
Census
Gamel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 107 people with the first name Gamel, which placed it at #52,420 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
#52,420
National first-name rank
People counted
107
107 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Gamel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gamel is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (17.8%) and Hispanic (13.1%). 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 Gamel 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 Gamel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.4% · 70
- White17.8% · 19
- Hispanic or Latino13.1% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 2
- Two or more races1.9% · 2
Popularity
Gamel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Gamel from the 1960s through to the 1980s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 10 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1960s peak, Gamel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Gamel 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 Gamel 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 Gamel
The name Gamel is an Arabic name originating from the Middle East region. It is derived from the Arabic word "jamal" which means beauty or camel. The name has been in use since ancient times, and its earliest recorded examples date back to the 7th century AD during the Islamic Golden Age.
In Islamic history, Gamel was the name of a renowned poet and scholar who lived in Medina during the 8th century AD. He was known for his contributions to Arabic literature and his expertise in the field of linguistics. Another notable figure with the name Gamel was a prominent Muslim jurist and theologian from the 10th century AD who authored several influential works on Islamic jurisprudence.
In the medieval period, Gamel was a relatively common name among Arab and Muslim communities across the Middle East and North Africa. It was also used by some Persian and Turkish families, particularly those with close ties to the Arabic-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded European individuals with the name Gamel was a Flemish painter who lived in the 15th century. He is known for his intricate portraiture and religious paintings, some of which can still be found in various museums and churches across Belgium and the Netherlands.
In more recent history, Gamel Abdel Nasser, born in 1918, was a prominent Egyptian politician and revolutionary who served as the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He played a pivotal role in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and was a key figure in the pan-Arab nationalist movement.
Another notable individual with the name Gamel was Gamel Woolsey, an American writer and poet born in 1895. She was part of the Lost Generation of expatriate writers in Paris during the 1920s and was known for her avant-garde literary works and her involvement in the Modernist movement.
These are just a few examples of the rich history and significance of the name Gamel across different cultures and time periods.
People
Gamel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Gamel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Gamel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Gamel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Gamel 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 24,482,453 US residents.
Is Gamel a common name?
We classify Gamel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 34% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Gamel most popular?
The single biggest year for Gamel was 1967, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Gamel is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Gamel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 107 people with the name Gamel, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #52,420 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 Gamel 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 Gamel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Gamel leans strongly male. 108 people counted with this name were male (96.4%), compared with 4 female bearers (3.6%). 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 Gamel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Gamel is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (17.8%) and Hispanic (13.1%). 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 Gamel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Gamel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.4% (70 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 Gamel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Gamel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Gamel 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 Gamel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Gamel 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 Gamel 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 share the name Gamel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.