Jamiah
An Arabic name meaning "a female gatherer or collector".
Name Census estimates that about 2,750 living Americans carry the first name Jamiah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.4% of registrations being female. The average person named Jamiah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamiah births was 2003 (180 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamiah. 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 Jamiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 124,638 Americans
Peak year
2003
180 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2022 SSA rank
#4,501
Tracked since 1981
Census
Jamiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,099 people with the first name Jamiah, which placed it at #7,307 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
#7,307
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,099 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
87.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamiah is Black at 87.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.4%) and Hispanic (3.5%). 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 Jamiah 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 Jamiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American87.4% · 1,835
- Two or more races5.4% · 114
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 73
- White2.5% · 53
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Jamiah
Jamiah leans heavily female at 87.4% of total registrations, but 350 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jamiah as a male name
- Ranked #11,454 in 2022
- 6 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2003 (16 births)
Jamiah as a female name
- Ranked #4,501 in 2024
- 31 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (164 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamiah leans strongly female. 1,825 people counted with this name were female (86.6%), compared with 283 male bearers (13.4%).
Popularity
Jamiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamiah from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,354 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamiah 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 Jamiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Florida, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Jamiah, while Oklahoma, Arkansas, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamiah
The name Jamiah is of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "jami'ah," which means "university" or "gathering place of knowledge." It first emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 7th to 8th centuries, when the concept of universities and centers of learning began to flourish in the Islamic world.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Jamiah can be found in historical texts from the Abbasid Caliphate, a prominent Islamic empire that ruled from the 8th to 13th centuries. During this period, the name was often associated with scholars, intellectuals, and individuals who dedicated their lives to the pursuit of knowledge.
The name Jamiah has been mentioned in several influential Islamic texts, including the hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and various works of Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy. Some scholars believe that the name may have been inspired by the Arabic word "jami'," which means "to gather" or "to collect," reflecting the notion of acquiring and disseminating knowledge.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Jamiah. One of the earliest recorded instances is Jamiah al-Kindi (801-873 CE), a renowned philosopher, mathematician, and scientist during the Islamic Golden Age. He is widely regarded as the "father of Arab philosophy" and made significant contributions to various fields, including optics, medicine, and metaphysics.
Another prominent figure was Jamiah al-Ghazali (1058-1111 CE), a highly influential Islamic scholar, philosopher, and theologian. His works, such as "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" and "The Revival of Religious Sciences," had a profound impact on Islamic thought and played a crucial role in reconciling reason and faith.
In the 13th century, Jamiah ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288 CE) was a renowned Arab physician and polymath. He made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of medicine, including being the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of blood and the coronary circulation in the human body.
The name Jamiah was also borne by Jamiah al-Suyuti (1445-1505 CE), a prolific Egyptian scholar and writer who authored works on various subjects, including Quranic exegesis, hadith studies, and Arabic grammar.
In more recent times, Jamiah Baksh (1832-1892) was a famous Indian Islamic scholar and reformer who played a significant role in the revival of Islamic education and the establishment of modern schools and universities in the Indian subcontinent.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have carried the name Jamiah throughout history, reflecting its deep roots in the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual endeavors within the Islamic tradition.
People
Jamiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamiah 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
Jamiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,750 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamiah 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 124,638 US residents.
Is Jamiah a common name?
We classify Jamiah as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,788 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamiah was 2003, when 180 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamiah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,099 people with the name Jamiah, or 0.69 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,307 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 Jamiah 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 Jamiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamiah leans strongly female. 1,825 people counted with this name were female (86.6%), compared with 283 male bearers (13.4%). 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 Jamiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamiah is Black at 87.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.4%) and Hispanic (3.5%). 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 Jamiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.4% (1,835 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 Jamiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamiah a female name?
Yes, 87.4% of people registered as Jamiah 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 Jamiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamiah 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 Jamiah 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 Jamiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.