Jamahl
A masculine name derived from the Arabic word for beauty.
Name Census estimates that about 706 living Americans carry the first name Jamahl. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Jamahl today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamahl births was 1988 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamahl. 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 Jamahl with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
706
~ 1 in 485,488 Americans
Peak year
1988
26 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2020 SSA rank
#9,979
Tracked since 1969
Census
Jamahl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 490 people with the first name Jamahl, which placed it at #20,910 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
#20,910
National first-name rank
People counted
490
490 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamahl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamahl is Black at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.8%) and White (4.1%). 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 Jamahl 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 Jamahl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.1% · 407
- Two or more races7.8% · 38
- White4.1% · 20
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Jamahl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamahl from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 200 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamahl 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 Jamahl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamahls live
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamahl
The name Jamahl has its origins in Arabic and is a variation of the name Jamal, which means "beauty" or "camel" in Arabic. The name is derived from the Arabic root word "jamal," which is related to physical beauty or attractiveness.
The name Jamahl first emerged in the Middle East and North Africa during the early days of Islam, around the 7th century AD. It was commonly used among Arab populations and gradually spread to other regions as Islam expanded.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jamahl can be found in the classic Arabic literature "One Thousand and One Nights," also known as "The Arabian Nights." In this collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, there is a character named Jamahl al-Sayah, a merchant who embarks on a journey and encounters various adventures.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jamahl. One of the most famous was Jamahl al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897), an Islamic philosopher and political activist who played a significant role in the late 19th-century Islamic revival movement.
Another prominent Jamahl was Jamahl Molineaux (1886-1918), an African American boxer and actor who gained fame in the early 20th century. He was one of the first Black actors to achieve success in Hollywood during the silent film era.
In the realm of music, Jamahl Farah (born 1946) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and composer of Lebanese descent. He is best known for representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1972.
Jamahl Rasheed (born 1964) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the NBA for several teams, including the Atlanta Hawks and the Orlando Magic, during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Jamahl Simmons (born 1974) is a Bermudian politician and the current Minister of Home Affairs in the government of Bermuda. He has been actively involved in Bermudian politics since the early 2000s.
While the name Jamahl is not as common as some other Arabic names, it has a rich history and cultural significance, reflecting the beauty and heritage of the Arabic language and Islamic traditions.
People
Jamahl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamahl 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
Jamahl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamahl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 706 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamahl 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 485,488 US residents.
Is Jamahl a common name?
We classify Jamahl as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 734 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamahl most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamahl was 1988, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamahl is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamahl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 490 people with the name Jamahl, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,910 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 Jamahl 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 Jamahl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamahl appears almost entirely male. Of the 487 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Jamahl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamahl is Black at 83.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.8%) and White (4.1%). 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 Jamahl most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamahl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.1% (407 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 Jamahl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamahl a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jamahl 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 Jamahl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamahl 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 Jamahl 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 Jamahl?
Want to know how many people have the name Jamahl? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.