Kamara
A feminine given name of Arabic origin meaning "moon" or "protection".
Name Census estimates that about 2,004 living Americans carry the first name Kamara. It is a predominantly female name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Kamara today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamara births was 2007 (88 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamara. 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 Kamara with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.0K
~ 1 in 171,035 Americans
Peak year
2007
88 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2022 SSA rank
#3,529
Tracked since 1965
Census
Kamara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,617 people with the first name Kamara, which placed it at #8,828 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
#8,828
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,617 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamara is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.1%) and Two or More Races (11.4%). 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 Kamara 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 Kamara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.4% · 1,058
- White16.1% · 261
- Two or more races11.4% · 184
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 77
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 16
Gender
Gender distribution for Kamara
Kamara leans heavily female at 98.7% of total registrations, but 26 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kamara as a male name
- Ranked #13,292 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2019 (9 births)
Kamara as a female name
- Ranked #3,529 in 2024
- 44 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (88 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamara leans strongly female. 1,507 people counted with this name were female (93.2%), compared with 110 male bearers (6.8%).
Popularity
Kamara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamara from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 609 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kamara remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamara 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 Kamara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamaras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Ohio, Florida recorded the most babies named Kamara, while Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamara
The name Kamara has its origins in the Mande languages spoken in West Africa, particularly in the regions of present-day Mali, Guinea, and Senegal. The name is believed to have derived from the Maninka word "kamara," which means "one who is wealthy" or "one who possesses wealth."
In the ancient Mali Empire, which flourished between the 13th and 17th centuries, the name Kamara was often associated with the ruling class and wealthy merchants. It was a name bestowed upon individuals who had amassed significant wealth and prosperity through trade, agriculture, or other economic endeavors.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Kamara can be traced back to the 14th century, with references found in the oral traditions and genealogies of the Mande-speaking peoples. One notable figure from this period was Kamara Foulah, a renowned trader and diplomat who played a crucial role in establishing trade routes between the Mali Empire and the Hausa city-states in present-day Nigeria.
During the 16th century, the name Kamara gained prominence in the Songhai Empire, which succeeded the Mali Empire as the dominant power in West Africa. Askia Muhammad Kamara, born around 1490, was a prominent ruler of the Songhai Empire who is credited with expanding the empire's territories and promoting Islamic scholarship.
In the 19th century, a notable figure bearing the name Kamara was Kamara Diarra, a respected Islamic scholar and teacher from the Wassoulou region of present-day Mali. He was renowned for his teachings on the Quran and Islamic jurisprudence, and his works were widely studied throughout West Africa.
Another influential Kamara was Kamara Laye, a Guinean writer and educator born in 1928. His novel "The African Child," published in 1953, is considered a seminal work in African literature and offers a poignant portrayal of traditional Malinke society and the impact of colonialism.
In more recent times, the name Kamara has been carried by several prominent figures in various fields, including Idris Kamara, a Sierra Leonean football player who played for the national team and various clubs in Europe in the late 20th century, and Kamara Bright, a Liberian politician and former minister who played a significant role in the country's post-conflict reconstruction efforts.
People
Kamara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamara 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
Kamara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,004 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamara 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 171,035 US residents.
Is Kamara a common name?
We classify Kamara as "Rare". It ranks above 93.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,055 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamara most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamara was 2007, when 88 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamara is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,617 people with the name Kamara, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,828 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 Kamara 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 Kamara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamara leans strongly female. 1,507 people counted with this name were female (93.2%), compared with 110 male bearers (6.8%). 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 Kamara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamara is Black at 65.4%. The next largest groups are White (16.1%) and Two or More Races (11.4%). 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 Kamara most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.4% (1,058 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 Kamara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamara a female name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Kamara 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 Kamara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamara 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 Kamara 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 Kamara?
Want to know how many people share the name Kamara? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.