Hajira
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "she who emigrates" or "emigrant".
Name Census estimates that about 123 living Americans carry the first name Hajira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Hajira today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hajira births was 2011 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hajira. 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 Hajira with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
123
~ 1 in 2,786,621 Americans
Peak year
2011
9 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,420
Tracked since 1995
Census
Hajira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 371 people with the first name Hajira, which placed it at #25,534 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
#25,534
National first-name rank
People counted
371
371 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
76.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hajira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hajira is Asian/Pacific Islander at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Hajira 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 Hajira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander76.5% · 284
- Black or African American10.5% · 39
- Two or more races7.5% · 28
- White4.3% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Hajira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hajira from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 55 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hajira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hajira 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 Hajira 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 Hajira
The name Hajira is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language. It is a feminine name that is derived from the Arabic root word "hajr," which means "to separate" or "to isolate." The name Hajira can be translated as "the emigrant" or "the one who separates."
In Islamic tradition, Hajira is the name of the wife of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and the mother of Prophet Ismail (Ishmael). According to the Quran, Hajira was left in the desert with her infant son Ismail by Prophet Ibrahim, following God's command. It is said that when their water supply ran out, Hajira ran between the two hills of Safa and Marwah in search of water. This ritual is reenacted by Muslims during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca.
The name Hajira first appeared in the Islamic scriptures, particularly in the Quran, where her story is mentioned in several verses. It is also mentioned in various Islamic texts and historical records, such as the Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad) and the Sirah (biography of the Prophet).
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Hajira can be found in the writings of Arab historians and scholars from the 7th and 8th centuries, who documented the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and his companions.
Throughout history, there have been several notable women who bore the name Hajira:
1. Hajira Banu Umayya (died c. 660 CE), a companion of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan.
2. Hajira al-Nahdiyya (died c. 800 CE), a renowned Arab poet and scholar from the Abbasid era.
3. Hajira Hamduniyya (1096-1180 CE), a Syrian poet and scholar who was known for her contributions to Arabic literature.
4. Hajira Rashid (1869-1938), an Egyptian feminist and social reformer who advocated for women's rights and education.
5. Hajira Ismail (1892-1970), a pioneering Egyptian physician and one of the first female medical graduates in Egypt.
The name Hajira continues to be popular in various parts of the Arab world, as well as among Muslim communities in other regions, as a way to honor the legacy and significance of the historical figure Hajira in Islamic tradition.
People
Hajira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hajira as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hajira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hajira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 123 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hajira 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 2,786,621 US residents.
Is Hajira a common name?
We classify Hajira as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 124 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hajira most popular?
The single biggest year for Hajira was 2011, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hajira is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hajira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 371 people with the name Hajira, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,534 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 Hajira 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 Hajira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hajira appears almost entirely female. Of the 369 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Hajira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hajira is Asian/Pacific Islander at 76.5%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Hajira most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Hajira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.5% (284 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 Hajira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hajira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hajira 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 Hajira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hajira 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 Hajira 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 Hajira?
See how many people share the name Hajira on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.