Mehdi
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "the guided one" or "guide".
Name Census estimates that about 978 living Americans carry the first name Mehdi. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mehdi today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mehdi births was 2012 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mehdi. 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 Mehdi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
978
~ 1 in 350,465 Americans
Peak year
2012
37 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,939
Tracked since 1976
Census
Mehdi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,926 people with the first name Mehdi, which placed it at #4,660 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
#4,660
National first-name rank
People counted
3.9K
3,926 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mehdi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mehdi is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (11.2%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Mehdi 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 Mehdi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.6% · 3,009
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.2% · 438
- Two or more races10.0% · 392
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 50
- Black or African American0.9% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Mehdi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mehdi 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 285 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mehdi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mehdi 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 Mehdi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mehdis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Mehdi, while Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 21 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mehdi
The name Mehdi originates from Arabic and has its roots in the word "Mahdi", which means "the rightly guided one" or "the divinely guided one". This name has a significant religious and cultural significance in Islamic traditions, particularly in Shia Islam.
The name Mehdi is closely associated with the concept of the Mahdi, a messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the end of times to establish justice and peace on Earth. In Shia Islamic theology, the Mahdi is considered the 12th and final Imam, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali.
The earliest recorded use of the name Mehdi can be traced back to the 7th century CE, when it was given to some of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad and his family members. One of the most notable historical figures with this name was Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Mahdi, who was the third Abbasid caliph and ruled from 775 to 785 CE.
Throughout history, several prominent individuals have borne the name Mehdi, including Mehdi Qoli Hedayat (1799-1845), an Iranian philosopher and writer, and Mehdi Bazargan (1907-1995), an Iranian scholar, academic, and the first Prime Minister of Iran after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
Another notable figure was Mehdi Huseyn Hayat Tabrizi (1853-1920), an Azerbaijani educator, philosopher, and playwright, who played a significant role in the cultural and literary renaissance of Azerbaijan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the realm of sports, Mehdi Ben Attia (born 1967) is a Tunisian former football player and coach, while Mehdi Bagheri (born 1976) is an Iranian former football player and current manager.
The name Mehdi has also been borne by several religious leaders and scholars throughout Islamic history, such as Mehdi Ebrahimi Vafa (1925-2022), an Iranian Shia cleric and philosopher, and Mehdi Hairi Yazdi (1923-1999), an Iranian Shia cleric and scholar.
People
Mehdi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mehdi 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
Mehdi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mehdi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 978 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mehdi 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 350,465 US residents.
Is Mehdi a common name?
We classify Mehdi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 996 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mehdi most popular?
The single biggest year for Mehdi was 2012, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mehdi 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 Mehdi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,926 people with the name Mehdi, or 1.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,660 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 Mehdi 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 Mehdi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mehdi appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,930 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Mehdi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mehdi is White at 76.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (11.2%) and Two or More Races (10.0%). 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 Mehdi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mehdi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.6% (3,009 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 Mehdi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mehdi a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mehdi 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 Mehdi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mehdi 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 Mehdi 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 Mehdi as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Mehdi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.