Jalani
Of Arabic origin, meaning to endure or persist.
Name Census estimates that about 2,076 living Americans carry the first name Jalani. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Jalani today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jalani births was 2023 (251 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jalani. 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.
Key insights
- • Jalani started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Jalani is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 165,103 Americans
Peak year
2023
251 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,203
Tracked since 1973
Census
Jalani in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 951 people with the first name Jalani, which placed it at #12,880 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
#12,880
National first-name rank
People counted
951
951 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jalani
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jalani is Black at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.1%) and Two or More Races (7.7%). 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 Jalani 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 Jalani at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.4% · 736
- Hispanic or Latino10.1% · 96
- Two or more races7.7% · 73
- White3.3% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Jalani
Jalani is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,095 total registrations, 654 (31.2%) were male and 1,441 (68.8%) were female.
Jalani as a male name
- Ranked #5,118 in 2024
- 19 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (33 births)
Jalani as a female name
- Ranked #1,203 in 2024
- 196 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (225 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jalani on both sides of the split. Of the 953 people counted with this name, 456 were male (47.8%) and 497 were female (52.2%).
Popularity
Jalani: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jalani from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 952 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
Jalani 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 Jalani during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jalanis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Jalani, while Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jalani
The name Jalani has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, tracing back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Arabic root word "jala," which means "to reveal" or "to clarify." The name Jalani is a combination of this root and the Arabic suffix "-i," indicating belonging or relation.
In Islamic traditions, the name Jalani is associated with the renowned Sufi mystic and scholar, Jalaluddin Rumi, who lived in the 13th century. Rumi's full name, Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi, includes the element "Jalal," which is closely related to the name Jalani and means "majesty" or "glory." Rumi's poetry and teachings, celebrating divine love and spiritual enlightenment, had a profound impact on Islamic mysticism and literature.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Jalani was Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi, a renowned Islamic scholar and preacher who lived in Baghdad during the 12th century. He was known for his extensive literary works and his influential role in the propagation of Islamic teachings.
In the 14th century, another notable figure named Jalani emerged – Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, better known as Mevlana Rumi, a Persian poet, scholar, and Sufi mystic. His profound poetry and spiritual teachings have had a lasting impact on Islamic and world literature, inspiring countless individuals across cultures and generations.
In the realm of Islamic scholarship, Jalani also refers to Jalaluddin as-Suyuti, an Egyptian polymath and prolific author who lived in the 15th century. He made significant contributions to various fields, including Quranic studies, hadith literature, and Arabic grammar.
Another notable bearer of the name Jalani was Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the third Mughal emperor who ruled the Indian subcontinent from 1556 to 1605. Known for his religious tolerance, administrative reforms, and patronage of art and culture, Akbar left a lasting legacy in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
These are just a few examples of the historical figures who bore the name Jalani or its variations, each making their mark in their respective fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of cultural and intellectual heritage.
People
Jalani + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jalani 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
Jalani: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jalani?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,076 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jalani 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 165,103 US residents.
Is Jalani a common name?
We classify Jalani as "Rare". It ranks above 93.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,095 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jalani most popular?
The single biggest year for Jalani was 2023, when 251 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jalani is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jalani in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 951 people with the name Jalani, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,880 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 Jalani 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 Jalani?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jalani on both sides of the split. Of the 953 people counted with this name, 456 were male (47.8%) and 497 were female (52.2%). 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 Jalani?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jalani is Black at 77.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.1%) and Two or More Races (7.7%). 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 Jalani most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jalani in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.4% (736 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 Jalani in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jalani a female name?
Yes, 68.8% of people registered as Jalani 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 Jalani still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jalani 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 Jalani 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 are named Jalani?
Want to know how many people have the name Jalani? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.