Mohamed
A masculine Arabic name meaning "highly praised" or "praiseworthy".
Name Census estimates that about 18,496 living Americans carry the first name Mohamed. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mohamed today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mohamed births was 2014 (712 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mohamed. 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 Mohamed with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 18,531 Americans
Peak year
2014
712 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#548
Tracked since 1943
Census
Mohamed in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 46,249 people with the first name Mohamed, which placed it at #954 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
#954
National first-name rank
People counted
46K
46,249 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
15.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mohamed
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mohamed is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (41.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.4%). 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 Mohamed 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 Mohamed at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.3% · 21,424
- Black or African American41.3% · 19,080
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.4% · 3,443
- Two or more races3.8% · 1,779
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 419
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 104
Popularity
Mohamed: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mohamed from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,472 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mohamed remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mohamed 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 Mohamed during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mohameds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. New York, Michigan, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Mohamed, while Rhode Island, Oklahoma, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 472 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mohamed
The name Mohamed has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, tracing back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic root word "hamd," which means "to praise" or "to give thanks." The name is closely associated with the Islamic faith and the Prophet Muhammad, who is considered the last messenger of God in Islam.
Mohamed is a variant spelling of the name Muhammad, which is the most common form used in the Arabic world. The name has been widely used across various regions and cultures influenced by Islam, including the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia and Europe.
The name Muhammad first appears in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, where it is mentioned numerous times. In Islamic tradition, the name Muhammad is revered as the name of the Prophet, who was born in Mecca (present-day Saudi Arabia) in 570 CE.
Some of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mohamed can be found in historical documents and records from the 7th century CE, during the early years of the Islamic civilization. The name gained widespread popularity among Muslims, who often named their children after the Prophet as a sign of reverence and devotion.
Throughout history, numerous influential figures have borne the name Mohamed, including:
1. Mohamed Ibn Idris Al-Shafi'i (767-820 CE), a renowned Islamic jurist and scholar who established one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
2. Mohamed Al-Idrisi (1099-1166 CE), a renowned Arab geographer, cartographer, and traveler who created one of the most accurate maps of the world in the medieval period.
3. Mohamed Ibn Battuta (1304-1369 CE), a famous Moroccan explorer and traveler who journeyed across vast regions of the ancient world, covering over 73,000 miles during his travels.
4. Mohamed Al-Fasi (1454-1516 CE), a influential Moroccan scholar and theologian who made significant contributions to the development of Islamic thought and jurisprudence.
5. Mohamed Ali Pasha (1769-1849 CE), an Ottoman governor and ruler of Egypt, known for his efforts to modernize and strengthen the Egyptian military and economy.
These are just a few examples of the many notable figures throughout history who have carried the name Mohamed, reflecting its enduring significance and rich cultural heritage within the Islamic tradition and beyond.
People
Mohamed + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mohamed 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
Mohamed: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mohamed?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 18,496 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mohamed 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 18,531 US residents.
Is Mohamed a common name?
We classify Mohamed as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,781 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mohamed most popular?
The single biggest year for Mohamed was 2014, when 712 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mohamed is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mohamed in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 46,249 people with the name Mohamed, or 15.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #954 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 Mohamed 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 Mohamed?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mohamed appears almost entirely male. Of the 46,254 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Mohamed?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mohamed is White at 46.3%. The next largest groups are Black (41.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.4%). 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 Mohamed most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mohamed in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.3% (21,424 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 Mohamed in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mohamed a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mohamed 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 Mohamed still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mohamed 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 Mohamed 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 Mohamed?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Mohamed at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.