Mahdi
Of Arabic origin, meaning "guided one" or "rightly-guided".
Name Census estimates that about 2,262 living Americans carry the first name Mahdi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mahdi today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mahdi births was 2024 (107 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mahdi. 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 Mahdi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Mahdi is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 151,527 Americans
Peak year
2024
107 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,600
Tracked since 1959
Census
Mahdi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,931 people with the first name Mahdi, which placed it at #5,725 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
#5,725
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,931 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mahdi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahdi is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.5%). 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 Mahdi 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 Mahdi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.3% · 1,798
- Black or African American15.3% · 447
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.5% · 425
- Two or more races7.2% · 211
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 5
Popularity
Mahdi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mahdi from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 824 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mahdi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mahdi 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 Mahdi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mahdis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Michigan, New York, California recorded the most babies named Mahdi, while Georgia, Florida, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 87 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mahdi
The name Mahdi has its origins in Arabic, derived from the root word "هدى" (hada), which means "to guide" or "to lead". It is associated with the Islamic concept of a divinely guided leader or Messiah who will establish justice and peace on Earth.
In Islamic tradition, the Mahdi is a central figure who is believed to emerge during a time of great turmoil and corruption. The name has deep religious and spiritual connotations, representing guidance, righteousness, and the restoration of justice.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mahdi can be traced back to the 7th century, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Islamic era. It gained particular significance within the Shia Islamic tradition, where the belief in the coming of the Mahdi is a fundamental tenet.
One of the most notable historical figures bearing the name Mahdi was Muhammad al-Mahdi (869-934 CE), the 12th and final Imam of the Twelver Shia tradition. He is believed to have gone into occultation (concealment) at a young age and is expected to return as the promised Mahdi to establish a just and righteous society.
Another prominent figure was Ubaidullah al-Mahdi (873-934 CE), the founder of the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa and Egypt. He claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad and established a powerful dynasty that ruled for over two centuries.
In more recent history, Mahdi Ahmad (1835-1885), a Sudanese religious leader, proclaimed himself as the Mahdi and led a successful uprising against the Turco-Egyptian rule in Sudan, establishing the Mahdist State.
The name Mahdi has also been borne by other notable individuals throughout history, such as Mahdi Ghali Qinawi (1835-1897), an Egyptian scholar and writer, and Mahdi Amin Al-Husayni (1853-1935), a prominent Palestinian Arab nationalist and religious leader.
While the name Mahdi has its roots in Islamic tradition, it has also gained popularity across various cultures and regions, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, where it is often chosen for its profound spiritual and religious significance.
People
Mahdi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mahdi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mahdi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mahdi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,262 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mahdi 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 151,527 US residents.
Is Mahdi a common name?
We classify Mahdi as "Rare". It ranks above 94.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,294 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mahdi most popular?
The single biggest year for Mahdi was 2024, when 107 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mahdi is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mahdi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,931 people with the name Mahdi, or 0.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,725 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 Mahdi 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 Mahdi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mahdi leans strongly male. 2,894 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 37 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Mahdi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahdi is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (15.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.5%). 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 Mahdi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mahdi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.3% (1,798 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 Mahdi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mahdi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mahdi 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 Mahdi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mahdi 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 Mahdi 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 Mahdi?
See how many people have the name Mahdi on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.