Ahmad
Ahmad was given to 407 boys in 2025, #669 among boys’ names; 20,366 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 19,800 Americans named Ahmad and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 12 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ahmad by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ahmad mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ahmad is “a male given name from Arabic or Persian, meaning “most praiseworthy”; variant forms Aahmed, Achmad, Achmat, Achmed, Achmet, Ahamed, Ahmed, Ahmet.” Its etymology gives the sense “praiseworthy” (حَمِيد).
Borrowed from Arabic أَحْمَد (ʔaḥmad), elative of حَمِيد (ḥamīd, “praiseworthy”); or from Persian اَحْمَد (ahmad).
/ˈɑː.mæd/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ahmad?
#669 among boys’ names, 2025
Ahmad fell from #565 in 2015 to #669 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.26 to 0.24 per 1,000.
662 babies in 2001, the peak
Ahmad peaked in 2001, when 662 boys were given it, #386 among boys’ names. The 407 births of 2025 are 61% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 407 | #669 | 0.24 |
| 2024 | 411 | #668 | 0.24 |
| 2023 | 393 | #685 | 0.23 |
| 2022 | 437 | #634 | 0.25 |
| 2021 | 385 | #689 | 0.22 |
| 2020 | 429 | #625 | 0.25 |
| 2019 | 454 | #602 | 0.25 |
| 2018 | 502 | #552 | 0.28 |
| 2017 | 481 | #564 | 0.26 |
| 2016 | 466 | #588 | 0.25 |
Every recorded year (73)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 498 | #565 | 0.26 |
| 2014 | 490 | #567 | 0.26 |
| 2013 | 458 | #569 | 0.24 |
| 2012 | 444 | #579 | 0.23 |
| 2011 | 426 | #588 | 0.22 |
| 2010 | 494 | #523 | 0.26 |
| 2009 | 567 | #482 | 0.29 |
| 2008 | 465 | #560 | 0.23 |
| 2007 | 462 | #558 | 0.22 |
| 2006 | 487 | #524 | 0.24 |
| 2005 | 542 | #467 | 0.27 |
| 2004 | 508 | #487 | 0.26 |
| 2003 | 542 | #465 | 0.27 |
| 2002 | 626 | #404 | 0.32 |
| 2001 | 662 | #386 | 0.34 |
| 2000 | 526 | #454 | 0.27 |
| 1999 | 562 | #419 | 0.29 |
| 1998 | 608 | #402 | 0.32 |
| 1997 | 378 | #529 | 0.20 |
| 1996 | 390 | #519 | 0.21 |
| 1995 | 347 | #546 | 0.18 |
| 1994 | 367 | #534 | 0.19 |
| 1993 | 342 | #548 | 0.17 |
| 1992 | 309 | #578 | 0.15 |
| 1991 | 293 | #592 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 327 | #559 | 0.16 |
| 1989 | 315 | #544 | 0.16 |
| 1988 | 241 | #605 | 0.13 |
| 1987 | 284 | #540 | 0.15 |
| 1986 | 248 | #564 | 0.13 |
| 1985 | 190 | #638 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 166 | #673 | 0.09 |
| 1983 | 179 | #641 | 0.10 |
| 1982 | 208 | #596 | 0.11 |
| 1981 | 245 | #535 | 0.14 |
| 1980 | 238 | #556 | 0.13 |
| 1979 | 286 | #491 | 0.17 |
| 1978 | 204 | #590 | 0.12 |
| 1977 | 207 | #584 | 0.13 |
| 1976 | 121 | #755 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 135 | #712 | 0.09 |
| 1974 | 111 | #767 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 53 | #1,123 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 58 | #1,060 | 0.04 |
| 1971 | 64 | #1,014 | 0.04 |
| 1970 | 48 | #1,192 | 0.03 |
| 1969 | 26 | #1,604 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 29 | #1,454 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 22 | #1,652 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 16 | #1,963 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 21 | #1,720 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 15 | #2,113 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 13 | #2,299 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 21 | #1,756 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 21 | #1,777 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 21 | #1,771 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 16 | #2,033 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 11 | #2,505 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,552 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #3,945 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,201 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,143 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 5 | #3,689 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ahmad a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ahmad has been given almost only to boys: 18 girls in 73 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ahmad: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ahmad, and how old are they?
19,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 20,366 Americans ever recorded as Ahmad. The median Ahmad alive today is 22 years old; half are between 12 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 26,694 people named Ahmad (70 women and girls, 26,624 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 17,599 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 110 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,500 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 4,240 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,770 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ahmad born?
The states with the most babies named Ahmad are California, Texas and New York, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 43 | #643 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 43 | #677 | 0.8× |
| New York | 40 | #424 | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 31 | #345 | 1.6× |
| Michigan | 25 | #345 | 1.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 20 | #490 | 1.1× |
| New Jersey | 19 | #412 | 2.1× |
| Virginia | 19 | #408 | 1.5× |
| Ohio | 18 | #555 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 16 | #626 | 1.5× |
Where Ahmad is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ahmad is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1950 it was given 2.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ahmad with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 39,243 babies since 1880, Ahmad is the most given (52% of them). In 2025 it was given to 407 of their 789 babies (52%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ahmad
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ahmad and names like it
- Compare Ahmad and AhmedBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sAhmad peaked in 2001.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ahmad since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Ahmad: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Ahmad.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Ahmad alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with AMost given first.