Jalal
A masculine Arabic name meaning "glory", "majesty" or "grandeur".
Name Census estimates that about 717 living Americans carry the first name Jalal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jalal today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jalal births was 2003 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jalal. 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 Jalal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
717
~ 1 in 478,040 Americans
Peak year
2003
23 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,298
Tracked since 1972
Census
Jalal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,726 people with the first name Jalal, which placed it at #8,406 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
#8,406
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,726 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jalal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jalal is White at 63.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.8%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Jalal 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 Jalal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.1% · 1,089
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.8% · 273
- Black or African American11.0% · 189
- Two or more races7.9% · 137
- Hispanic or Latino2.2% · 38
Popularity
Jalal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jalal from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 162 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Jalal remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jalal 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 Jalal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jalals live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jalal
The name Jalal has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, tracing back to the 7th century. The name is derived from the Arabic word "jalal," which means "glory" or "majesty." It is a name that carries a sense of grandeur and reverence.
In the religious context, the name Jalal is closely associated with one of the names of Allah in Islam, "Al-Jalal," which refers to His magnificence and supreme glory. This connection has contributed to the name's widespread use among Muslims throughout history.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jalal can be found in the works of the renowned Persian poet and philosopher, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, who lived from 1207 to 1273. Rumi, also known as Mawlana (our master), was a Sufi mystic and is considered one of the greatest poets in the Persian language.
Another notable figure bearing the name Jalal is Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Akbar, the third Mughal emperor of India, who ruled from 1556 to 1605. Akbar was known for his religious tolerance, military conquests, and administrative reforms that contributed to the establishment of the Mughal Empire as a major power in the subcontinent.
In the modern era, Jalal Al-e Ahmad (1923-1969) was an influential Iranian writer, novelist, and social critic who played a significant role in shaping the intellectual discourse of pre-revolutionary Iran. His works, such as "Gharbzadegi" (Westoxification), criticized the blind adoption of Western values and called for a revival of authentic Iranian culture.
Another prominent figure with the name Jalal is Jalal Talabani (1933-2017), who served as the sixth President of Iraq from 2005 to 2014. Talabani was a Kurdish politician and the first non-Arab president of Iraq, known for his efforts to promote Kurdish rights and national reconciliation.
Finally, Jalal Agha Shahi (1919-2003) was a distinguished Pakistani diplomat and writer who served as the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan from 1973 to 1982. He played a crucial role in Pakistan's foreign policy during the Cold War era and authored several books on international relations and diplomacy.
People
Jalal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jalal as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jalal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jalal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 717 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jalal 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 478,040 US residents.
Is Jalal a common name?
We classify Jalal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 735 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jalal most popular?
The single biggest year for Jalal was 2003, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jalal is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jalal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,726 people with the name Jalal, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,406 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 Jalal 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 Jalal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jalal appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,720 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 Jalal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jalal is White at 63.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.8%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Jalal most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Jalal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.1% (1,089 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 Jalal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jalal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jalal 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 Jalal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jalal 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 Jalal 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 Jalal?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.