Ibrahima
A masculine given name of Arabic origin meaning "father of the multitudes".
Name Census estimates that about 1,042 living Americans carry the first name Ibrahima. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ibrahima today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ibrahima births was 2002 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ibrahima. 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 Ibrahima with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ibrahima is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 328,939 Americans
Peak year
2002
53 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,884
Tracked since 1992
Census
Ibrahima in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,792 people with the first name Ibrahima, which placed it at #8,155 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
#8,155
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,792 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
95.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ibrahima
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ibrahima is Black at 95.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.7%) and White (1.5%). 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 Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American95.7% · 1,715
- Two or more races1.7% · 31
- White1.5% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 12
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 8
Popularity
Ibrahima: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ibrahima from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 394 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ibrahima remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ibrahimas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Ohio, Georgia recorded the most babies named Ibrahima, while Maryland, Georgia, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ibrahima
The name Ibrahima is derived from the Arabic name Ibrahim, which has its roots in the Semitic languages of the Middle East. Ibrahim is a direct borrowing from the Hebrew name Avraham, which means "father of many" or "father of multitudes." The name can be traced back to the biblical figure Abraham, a prominent patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
In the Islamic tradition, Ibrahim is revered as a prophet and a messenger of God. The Qur'an mentions him numerous times, and he is regarded as one of the most significant figures in the Abrahamic faiths. The name Ibrahima is a variant spelling found in West African countries, particularly in the Fulani language, which is spoken in several nations across the Sahel region of Africa.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ibrahima can be found in the 14th century, with Ibrahima Sori, a prominent ruler of the Mali Empire. He was a descendant of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the empire, and reigned from 1352 to 1360.
Another notable figure with the name Ibrahima was Ibrahima Niasse, a Senegalese Islamic scholar and Sufi leader who lived from 1900 to 1975. He was a prominent figure in the Tijaniyyah order and played a significant role in the spread of Islam in West Africa.
In the 16th century, Ibrahima Katiray was a famous military leader and ruler of the Fulani Empire, also known as the Sokoto Caliphate, which was located in present-day Nigeria and neighboring regions. He lived from 1498 to 1577 and was instrumental in the expansion of the empire.
Ibrahima N'Diaye was a prominent Senegalese politician and activist who lived from 1938 to 2012. He played a crucial role in the fight for Senegalese independence from French colonial rule and served as the country's Minister of Interior and Minister of Justice during the early years of independence.
In the realm of literature, Ibrahima Ly is a notable contemporary writer from Senegal. Born in 1958, he has authored several novels and short stories that explore themes of identity, tradition, and modernity in West African society.
These are just a few examples of the historical figures who have borne the name Ibrahima, a name deeply rooted in religious and cultural traditions that span across regions and centuries.
People
Ibrahima + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ibrahima as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ibrahima: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ibrahima?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,042 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ibrahima 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 328,939 US residents.
Is Ibrahima a common name?
We classify Ibrahima as "Rare". It ranks above 90.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,053 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ibrahima most popular?
The single biggest year for Ibrahima was 2002, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ibrahima is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ibrahima in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,792 people with the name Ibrahima, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,155 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 Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ibrahima appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,793 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Ibrahima?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ibrahima is Black at 95.7%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (1.7%) and White (1.5%). 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 Ibrahima most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ibrahima in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.7% (1,715 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 Ibrahima in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ibrahima a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima 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 Ibrahima?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Ibrahima, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.