Khouri
A masculine Arabic name meaning "priest" or "religious scholar".
Name Census estimates that about 42 living Americans carry the first name Khouri. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Khouri today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khouri births was 2019 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khouri. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Khouri. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
42
~ 1 in 8,160,818 Americans
Peak year
2019
11 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,197
Tracked since 2009
Census
Khouri in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 133 people with the first name Khouri, which placed it at #48,223 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
#48,223
National first-name rank
People counted
133
133 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
71.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khouri
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khouri is Black at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Khouri 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 Khouri at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American71.4% · 95
- White12.0% · 16
- Two or more races7.5% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.8% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Khouri
Khouri is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 42 total registrations, 11 (26.2%) were male and 31 (73.8%) were female.
Khouri as a male name
- Ranked #13,197 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 2011 (6 births)
Khouri as a female name
- Ranked #16,366 in 2020
- 5 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2017 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Khouri on both sides of the split. Of the 128 people counted with this name, 55 were male (43.0%) and 73 were female (57.0%).
Popularity
Khouri: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khouri from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 31 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khouri 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 Khouri 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 Khouri
The name Khouri is of Arabic origin, tracing its roots back to the Middle East and the Arabic language. It is a masculine name derived from the Arabic word "khawr," which means "small bay" or "inlet." The name likely originated among coastal communities in the region, where such geographical features were prevalent.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Khouri can be found in medieval Islamic texts and records from the 9th century. During this time, the name was primarily used within Arab communities, particularly those residing in the Levant region, which includes modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
In the 12th century, a notable figure named Khouri ibn al-Wardi, a renowned Islamic scholar and historian from Baghdad, gained prominence for his contributions to the study of Islamic jurisprudence and historical writings.
As trade and cultural exchange between the Arab world and other regions flourished, the name Khouri gradually spread beyond its original geographical confines. In the 16th century, during the Ottoman Empire's rule over parts of the Middle East, records indicate the presence of individuals bearing the name Khouri in various administrative and scholarly positions.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Khouri in modern history was Bishara Khouri (1891-1964), a renowned Lebanese writer, poet, and philosopher who played a significant role in the Arab literary renaissance of the early 20th century. His works explored themes of nationalism, identity, and the human condition, leaving a lasting impact on Arabic literature.
Another notable figure was Sami Khouri (1923-2012), a Palestinian businessman and philanthropist who established the Sami Khouri Family Foundation, dedicated to promoting education and cultural exchange between the Middle East and the West.
In the realm of sports, Khouri Habib (1948-2016) was a prominent Lebanese footballer who represented the national team and played for several clubs in Lebanon and the Gulf region during the 1970s and 1980s.
The name Khouri has also been associated with religious figures, including Metropolitan Khouri Iskandar (1884-1960), a prominent cleric in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church who served as the Archbishop of Homs and Hama in Syria.
It is important to note that while the name Khouri has its roots in the Arabic language and culture, it has been adopted and used by various communities around the world, particularly those with connections to the Middle East or those influenced by the rich cultural heritage of the region.
People
Khouri + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khouri 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
Khouri: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khouri?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 42 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khouri 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 8,160,818 US residents.
Is Khouri a common name?
We classify Khouri as "Very Rare". It ranks above 51.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 42 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khouri most popular?
The single biggest year for Khouri was 2019, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khouri is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khouri in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 133 people with the name Khouri, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,223 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 Khouri 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 Khouri?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Khouri on both sides of the split. Of the 128 people counted with this name, 55 were male (43.0%) and 73 were female (57.0%). 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 Khouri?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khouri is Black at 71.4%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Two or More Races (7.5%). 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 Khouri most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khouri in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.4% (95 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 Khouri in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khouri a female name?
Yes, 73.8% of people registered as Khouri 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 Khouri still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khouri 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 Khouri 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 called Khouri?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.