Idris
Of Arabic and Muslim origin, meaning "one who is taught, well-educated".
Name Census estimates that about 4,588 living Americans carry the first name Idris. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Idris today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Idris births was 2024 (347 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Idris. 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 Idris with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Idris is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 74,707 Americans
Peak year
2024
347 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#739
Tracked since 1914
Census
Idris in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,339 people with the first name Idris, which placed it at #5,210 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
#5,210
National first-name rank
People counted
3.3K
3,339 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Idris
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Idris is Black at 56.7%. The next largest groups are White (14.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%). 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 Idris 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 Idris at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.7% · 1,892
- White14.4% · 481
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.9% · 332
- Two or more races9.4% · 313
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 312
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Idris
Idris leans heavily male at 99.0% of total registrations, but 47 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Idris as a male name
- Ranked #739 in 2024
- 347 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (347 births)
Idris as a female name
- Ranked #12,636 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1920 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Idris leans strongly male. 3,234 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 108 female bearers (3.2%).
Popularity
Idris: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Idris from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,637 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
Idris 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 Idris during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Idris' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Idris, while Louisiana, Alabama, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 130 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Idris
The name Idris is of Arabic origin, derived from the Semitic root "dr" which means "to study" or "to interpret." It is believed to have originated in the 7th century CE during the early days of Islam.
Idris is a name that has been used in various parts of the Arab world, as well as in regions with significant Muslim populations. It gained particular prominence through its association with the Islamic prophet Idris, who is mentioned in the Quran and is revered as one of the earliest prophets sent by God.
The name Idris is also linked to the ancient city of Idris, located in present-day Morocco. This city was named after the prophet and was a center of learning and scholarship during the medieval period. The name has been associated with wisdom, knowledge, and intellectual pursuits.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Idris can be found in the works of the renowned Islamic scholar and philosopher, Al-Farabi, who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. He wrote extensively about the philosophical and scientific teachings of the prophet Idris.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Idris. One of the most famous was Idris I, the founder of the Idrisid dynasty in Morocco, who ruled from 788 to 791 CE. Another prominent figure was Idris al-Shafi'i, a renowned Islamic jurist and the founder of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, who lived from 767 to 820 CE.
Other notable individuals with the name Idris include Idris of Bidlis, a 16th-century Kurdish poet and philosopher; Idris Senussi, the founder of the Senussi Muslim order in Libya in the 19th century; and Idris I, the first King of Libya, who reigned from 1951 to 1969.
The name Idris has also been carried by contemporary figures, such as Sir Idris Llewelyn Davies, a Welsh lawyer and judge who lived from 1924 to 2018, and Idris Elba, the acclaimed British actor known for his roles in films like "The Wire" and "Luther," born in 1972.
Throughout its long history, the name Idris has remained a popular choice in many parts of the world, particularly among Muslim communities, due to its rich cultural and religious associations with knowledge, wisdom, and prophetic traditions.
People
Idris + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Idris 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
Idris: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Idris?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Idris 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 74,707 US residents.
Is Idris a common name?
We classify Idris as "Rare". It ranks above 96.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,685 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Idris most popular?
The single biggest year for Idris was 2024, when 347 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Idris is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Idris in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,339 people with the name Idris, or 1.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,210 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 Idris 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 Idris?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Idris leans strongly male. 3,234 people counted with this name were male (96.8%), compared with 108 female bearers (3.2%). 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 Idris?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Idris is Black at 56.7%. The next largest groups are White (14.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.9%). 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 Idris most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Idris in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.7% (1,892 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 Idris in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Idris a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Idris 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 Idris still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Idris 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 Idris 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 Idris?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Idris at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.