Jamal
A masculine Arabic name meaning "beauty" or "perfection".
Name Census estimates that about 32,193 living Americans carry the first name Jamal. It is a predominantly male name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Jamal today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamal births was 1993 (1,254 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamal. 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 Jamal with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Jamal is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 266 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
32K
~ 1 in 10,647 Americans
Peak year
1993
1,254 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,183
Tracked since 1946
Census
Jamal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 29,771 people with the first name Jamal, which placed it at #1,256 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
#1,256
National first-name rank
People counted
30K
29,771 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
73.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamal is Black at 73.5%. The next largest groups are White (13.5%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Jamal 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 Jamal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American73.5% · 21,869
- White13.5% · 4,005
- Two or more races5.6% · 1,672
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 1,131
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 932
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 162
Gender
Gender distribution for Jamal
Out of the 33,329 babies given the name Jamal since 1880, 99.2% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jamal as a male name
- Ranked #1,183 in 2024
- 175 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (1,246 births)
Jamal as a female name
- Ranked #13,333 in 1999
- 6 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1976 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamal appears almost entirely male. Of the 29,768 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Jamal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamal from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 10,312 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamal 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 Jamal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Jamal, while Nebraska, Hawaii, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 769 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamal
The name Jamal has its origins in the Arabic language, deriving from the word "jamal" which means "beauty" or "camel." It has been used as a masculine given name in the Arab world and among Muslim communities for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Jamal dates back to the 7th century AD, when it was borne by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, a renowned Islamic philosopher and political activist who played a significant role in the late 19th-century Islamic revival movement. He was born in 1838 in present-day Iran and died in 1897 in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire.
Another notable figure with the name Jamal is Jamal ad-Din al-Qurashi, a 13th-century Islamic scholar and jurist from Damascus, Syria. He was known for his expertise in Islamic law and his contributions to the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence.
In the 14th century, Jamal ad-Din al-Wasiti, an Iraqi mathematician and astronomer, made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and astronomical calculations. He was born in 1293 in Wasit, Iraq, and died in 1349 in Damascus.
During the 19th century, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, an Islamic reformist and political activist, played a pivotal role in the pan-Islamic movement. He was born in 1838 in present-day Iran and died in 1897 in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire.
Another notable figure with the name Jamal is Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident who was assassinated in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. He was born in 1958 in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
The name Jamal has been widely used across the Arab world and among Muslim communities, with variations in spelling and pronunciation depending on the region and language. Its association with beauty, grace, and nobility has contributed to its enduring popularity as a masculine given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Jamal
People
Jamal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamal 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
Jamal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32,193 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamal 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 10,647 US residents.
Is Jamal a common name?
We classify Jamal as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 33,329 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamal most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamal was 1993, when 1,254 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamal is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 29,771 people with the name Jamal, or 9.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,256 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 Jamal 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 Jamal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamal appears almost entirely male. Of the 29,768 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Jamal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamal is Black at 73.5%. The next largest groups are White (13.5%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Jamal most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.5% (21,869 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 Jamal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamal a male name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Jamal 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 Jamal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamal 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 Jamal 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 share the name Jamal?
Want to know how many people have the name Jamal? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.