Ilham
An Arabic name meaning "divine inspiration" or "revelation".
Name Census estimates that about 274 living Americans carry the first name Ilham. It is a predominantly female name (92.1% of registrations). The average person named Ilham today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ilham births was 2022 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ilham. 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 Ilham with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
274
~ 1 in 1,250,928 Americans
Peak year
2022
22 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2023 SSA rank
#8,107
Tracked since 1995
Census
Ilham in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,193 people with the first name Ilham, which placed it at #10,953 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
#10,953
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,193 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ilham
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilham is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.8%). 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 Ilham 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 Ilham at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.4% · 804
- Black or African American17.9% · 213
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.8% · 105
- Two or more races4.8% · 57
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Ilham
Ilham leans heavily female at 92.1% of total registrations, but 22 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ilham as a male name
- Ranked #9,225 in 2023
- 8 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2022 (9 births)
Ilham as a female name
- Ranked #8,107 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ilham leans strongly female. 1,077 people counted with this name were female (90.4%), compared with 114 male bearers (9.6%).
Popularity
Ilham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ilham 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 92 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
Ilham 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 Ilham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ilhams live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ilham
The name Ilham has its origins in Arabic, deriving from the root word "wah-lam-ha" which means "to inspire" or "to receive divine revelation." It is a name associated with spiritual enlightenment and divine inspiration in Islamic tradition.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Ilham can be found in the Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam. In the Qur'an, the word "ilham" is used to refer to the divine revelations received by prophets and messengers of God.
Throughout Islamic history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ilham. One such figure was Ilham al-Battah, a 12th-century Sufi mystic and poet from Persia, who authored several works on spiritual enlightenment and the mystical path.
Another historical figure was Ilham al-Din, a prominent 13th-century Islamic scholar and jurist from Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan). He made significant contributions to the field of Islamic jurisprudence and authored several influential treatises on Islamic law.
In the realm of literature, Ilham Khatun was a renowned 16th-century Ottoman poet and calligrapher. She was celebrated for her mastery of the Turkish language and her beautiful calligraphic works, which are still preserved in various museums and collections.
Moving to more recent times, Ilham Aliyev, born in 1961, is the current President of Azerbaijan. He assumed office in 2003 and has played a significant role in shaping the country's political and economic landscape.
Finally, Ilham Tohti, born in 1969, is a renowned Uyghur scholar and human rights activist from China. He has been an outspoken advocate for the rights of the Uyghur minority and has faced persecution for his activism, being awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2019.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Ilham, highlighting its rich cultural and spiritual significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Ilham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ilham 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
Ilham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ilham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 274 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ilham 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 1,250,928 US residents.
Is Ilham a common name?
We classify Ilham as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 277 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ilham most popular?
The single biggest year for Ilham was 2022, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ilham 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 Ilham in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,193 people with the name Ilham, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,953 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 Ilham 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 Ilham?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ilham leans strongly female. 1,077 people counted with this name were female (90.4%), compared with 114 male bearers (9.6%). 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 Ilham?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ilham is White at 67.4%. The next largest groups are Black (17.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.8%). 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 Ilham most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ilham in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.4% (804 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 Ilham in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ilham a female name?
Yes, 92.1% of people registered as Ilham 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 Ilham still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ilham 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 Ilham 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 have the name Ilham?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Ilham, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.