Kamel
Arabic name meaning "perfect" or "complete".
Name Census estimates that about 577 living Americans carry the first name Kamel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kamel today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamel births was 2012 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamel. 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 Kamel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
577
~ 1 in 594,028 Americans
Peak year
2012
24 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,018
Tracked since 1973
Census
Kamel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,178 people with the first name Kamel, which placed it at #11,039 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
#11,039
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,178 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamel is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (26.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Kamel 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 Kamel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.0% · 742
- Black or African American26.2% · 309
- Two or more races4.2% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Kamel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamel 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 142 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Kamel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamel 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 Kamel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamel
The name Kamel has its origins in the Arabic language, where it is derived from the word "kāmil," meaning "perfect" or "complete." This name has been in use in the Arabic-speaking world for centuries, with its earliest recorded instances dating back to the 7th century CE.
During the Islamic Golden Age, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th centuries, the name Kamel gained popularity among Arab scholars, philosophers, and intellectuals. One of the most notable figures from this era was the Islamic philosopher and polymath, Kamel al-Din al-Farisi, who lived from 1260 to 1320 CE and made significant contributions to the fields of astronomy, mathematics, and optics.
In the 12th century, the name Kamel was also borne by the Ayyubid sultan Kamel al-Din al-Malik al-Adil, who ruled over parts of Syria and Egypt from 1200 to 1218 CE. He is remembered for his military prowess and for his role in the Third Crusade.
Another notable figure with the name Kamel was the Egyptian writer and scholar, Kamel Kilani, who lived from 1897 to 1959. He was a prominent figure in the Arab literary renaissance and is celebrated for his contributions to modern Arabic literature and his advocacy for social and political reforms.
In the 20th century, the name Kamel gained international recognition with the birth of Kamel Amin Thaabet, better known as Kamel Amin, an Egyptian actor and singer who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Egyptian cinema and music.
The name Kamel has also been associated with various religious figures throughout history. One such figure was Kamel al-Din al-Shafi'i, a 13th-century Islamic scholar and jurist who made significant contributions to the development of Shafi'i jurisprudence, one of the four major schools of Sunni Islamic law.
While the name Kamel has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, it has gained recognition and usage across various parts of the world, particularly in regions with significant Arab or Muslim populations. Its meaning of "perfection" or "completeness" has made it an appealing choice for parents seeking a name that embodies these qualities for their child.
People
Kamel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamel 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
Kamel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 577 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamel 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 594,028 US residents.
Is Kamel a common name?
We classify Kamel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 590 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamel most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamel was 2012, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamel is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,178 people with the name Kamel, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,039 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 Kamel 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 Kamel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamel leans strongly male. 1,113 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 60 female bearers (5.1%). 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 Kamel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamel is White at 63.0%. The next largest groups are Black (26.2%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). 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 Kamel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kamel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.0% (742 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 Kamel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamel 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 Kamel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamel 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 Kamel 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 have Kamel as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.