Kamali
Of Hindi origin, meaning "lovely one" or "beautiful woman".
Name Census estimates that about 270 living Americans carry the first name Kamali. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 54.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Kamali today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamali births was 2022 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamali. 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 Kamali with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
270
~ 1 in 1,269,461 Americans
Peak year
2022
20 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2023 SSA rank
#6,708
Tracked since 1977
Census
Kamali in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 377 people with the first name Kamali, which placed it at #25,213 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
#25,213
National first-name rank
People counted
377
377 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamali
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamali is Black at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%) and Hispanic (9.3%). 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 Kamali 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 Kamali at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.9% · 222
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.2% · 76
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 35
- Two or more races7.2% · 27
- White4.5% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Kamali
Kamali is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 275 total registrations, 150 (54.5%) were male and 125 (45.5%) were female.
Kamali as a male name
- Ranked #6,708 in 2023
- 13 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2023 (13 births)
Kamali as a female name
- Ranked #11,575 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kamali on both sides of the split. Of the 373 people counted with this name, 147 were male (39.4%) and 226 were female (60.6%).
Popularity
Kamali: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamali from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 81 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
Kamali 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 Kamali during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamali
The name Kamali is of Indian origin, derived from the Sanskrit word "kamala," which means "lotus flower." The lotus flower holds significant symbolism in Hindu and Buddhist cultures, representing purity, spiritual awakening, and divine beauty.
In Hindu mythology, the lotus is closely associated with several deities, including Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, and Brahma, the creator of the universe. The name Kamali is often given to girls with the hope that they will embody the virtues and qualities represented by the lotus flower.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Kamali can be traced back to ancient Hindu texts and scriptures. One notable mention is in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, where Kamali is the name of a celestial nymph.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kamali. One of the earliest was Kamali Devi (1027-1087), a Hindu poet and mystic from the Chola Dynasty in South India. Her devotional verses, known as the "Kamali Nachiar Pathu," are still widely revered and studied today.
In the 16th century, Kamali was the name of a renowned female painter from the Mughal Empire. Her works, which depicted scenes from the royal court and everyday life, are considered significant examples of Mughal miniature painting.
In the 19th century, Kamali Raman (1833-1905) was a prominent Indian educator and social reformer. She established several schools for girls and advocated for women's education and empowerment in British India.
More recently, Kamali Moorthy (1913-2008) was a renowned Indian classical dancer and choreographer. She was instrumental in preserving and promoting the Bharatanatyam dance form and was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honors.
Kamali Rodrigo (born 1979) is a contemporary Sri Lankan artist and sculptor known for her large-scale installations that explore themes of identity, displacement, and the human condition.
People
Kamali + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamali as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kamali: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamali?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 270 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamali 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 1,269,461 US residents.
Is Kamali a common name?
We classify Kamali as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 275 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamali most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamali was 2022, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamali 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 Kamali in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 377 people with the name Kamali, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,213 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 Kamali 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 Kamali?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kamali on both sides of the split. Of the 373 people counted with this name, 147 were male (39.4%) and 226 were female (60.6%). 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 Kamali?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamali is Black at 58.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%) and Hispanic (9.3%). 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 Kamali most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamali in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.9% (222 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 Kamali in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamali a male name?
Yes, 54.5% of people registered as Kamali 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 Kamali still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamali 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 Kamali 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 Americans are named Kamali?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Kamali at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.