Find out how popular the last name Jamal is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Jamal.

Jamal, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Jamal surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Jamal in America

Jamal is the 11081st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Jamal surname appeared 2,864 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Jamal.

We can also compare 2010 data for Jamal to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Jamal

The surname Jamal originated in the Arab world, with its roots dating back to the 7th century AD. It is derived from the Arabic word "jamal," which means "beauty" or "camel." The name is believed to have first emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in areas like Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Jamal can be found in the 9th century work "Kitab al-Aghani" (The Book of Songs), a renowned anthology of Arabic poetry and literature. This text mentions several individuals with the name Jamal, suggesting its widespread use during that era.

In the medieval period, the surname Jamal appeared in various historical records and manuscripts across the Middle East and North Africa. For instance, the 12th century Moroccan scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Jamal is mentioned in several Islamic texts for his contributions to the fields of literature and jurisprudence.

During the Ottoman Empire, the surname Jamal gained prominence, with notable figures like Mustafa Reşid Pasha (1800-1858), an influential Ottoman statesman and reformer who played a pivotal role in the Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century.

Another prominent individual with the surname Jamal was Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897), an influential Islamic thinker, philosopher, and political activist who advocated for pan-Islamic unity and modernization within the Muslim world.

In more recent history, the surname Jamal has been associated with several influential personalities, including the Egyptian Nobel laureate and diplomat Naguib Mahfouz Jamal (1911-2006), who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988 for his contributions to Arabic literature.

Additionally, the Palestinian-American literary theorist and cultural critic Edward W. Said (1935-2003), best known for his seminal work "Orientalism," was born with the surname Jamal, which he later changed to Said.

One cannot overlook the legacy of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897), an influential Islamic thinker, philosopher, and political activist who advocated for pan-Islamic unity and modernization within the Muslim world.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Jamal

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Jamal.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Jamal was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Jamal has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Jamal was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Jamal, please contact us.

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