Ghazal
An Arabic name meaning "poem of love and separation".
Name Census estimates that about 304 living Americans carry the first name Ghazal. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ghazal today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ghazal births was 2024 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ghazal. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Ghazal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
304
~ 1 in 1,127,481 Americans
Peak year
2024
34 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,218
Tracked since 1988
Census
Ghazal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 831 people with the first name Ghazal, which placed it at #14,225 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
#14,225
National first-name rank
People counted
831
831 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ghazal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ghazal is White at 67.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.4%) and Two or More Races (9.3%). 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 Ghazal 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 Ghazal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.9% · 564
- Asian and Pacific Islander21.4% · 178
- Two or more races9.3% · 77
- Black or African American1.1% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.1% · 1
Popularity
Ghazal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ghazal from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 132 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ghazal 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 Ghazal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ghazals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Ghazal, while Illinois, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ghazal
The name Ghazal has its origins in Persian and Arabic languages. It is derived from the Arabic word "ghazal," which means a poetic form consisting of couplets that express romantic or mystical love. The name dates back to the 7th century AD, when this poetic form flourished in the Arab world and later spread to other regions of the Middle East and South Asia.
The earliest recorded usage of the name Ghazal can be traced back to the medieval Islamic era. It was a popular name among poets and scholars who were admirers of this literary form. One of the earliest known historical figures with this name was Ghazal al-Arabi, an 8th-century Arab poet who composed several ghazals.
In the 12th century, the name gained prominence with the Persian poet Ghazal al-Din Rumi, also known as Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi. He was a renowned Sufi mystic and poet who wrote extensively in the ghazal form, exploring themes of divine love and spiritual enlightenment. His poetry has been widely celebrated and continues to be revered across the world.
Another notable figure with the name Ghazal was Ghazal Kashani, a 14th-century Persian poet and calligrapher. He was renowned for his mastery of the ghazal form and his exquisite calligraphic works, which are considered artistic treasures.
In the Indian subcontinent, the name Ghazal has been associated with the Urdu poetic tradition. One of the most celebrated Urdu poets, Mirza Ghalib, who lived in the 19th century, was a master of the ghazal form. His ghazals are widely studied and recited, and he is considered a literary giant in the world of Urdu poetry.
In more recent times, the name Ghazal has been carried by several notable figures, including Ghazal Omid, an Iranian singer and songwriter known for her contributions to Persian classical music, and Ghazal Srinivas, an Indian kathak dancer and choreographer who has performed extensively around the world.
The name Ghazal, with its rich literary and cultural heritage, continues to be associated with the poetic arts, particularly in the regions where the ghazal form has been cherished and celebrated for centuries.
People
Ghazal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ghazal 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
Ghazal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ghazal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 304 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ghazal 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 1,127,481 US residents.
Is Ghazal a common name?
We classify Ghazal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 307 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ghazal most popular?
The single biggest year for Ghazal was 2024, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ghazal is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ghazal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 831 people with the name Ghazal, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,225 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 Ghazal 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 Ghazal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ghazal appears almost entirely female. Of the 831 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Ghazal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ghazal is White at 67.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (21.4%) and Two or More Races (9.3%). 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 Ghazal most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ghazal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.9% (564 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 Ghazal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ghazal a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ghazal 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 Ghazal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ghazal 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 Ghazal 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 common is the name Ghazal?
See how many people share the name Ghazal on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.