Bilal
Bilal was given to 167 boys in 2025, #1,212 among boys’ names; 5,863 Americans have been recorded with it since 1964 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,730 Americans named Bilal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 9 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Bilal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Bilal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Bilal is “a male given name from Arabic.”
From Arabic بِلَال (bilāl), specially Bilāl ibn Rabāḥ.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Bilal?
#1,212 among boys’ names, 2025
Bilal rose from #1,217 in 2015 to #1,212 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 78.8 to 97.8 per million.
195 babies in 2018, the peak
Bilal peaked in 2018, when 195 boys were given it, #1,040 among boys’ names. The 167 births of 2025 are 86% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 167 | #1,212 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 175 | #1,182 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 180 | #1,156 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 166 | #1,200 | 0.10 |
| 2021 | 152 | #1,255 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 141 | #1,288 | 0.08 |
| 2019 | 152 | #1,239 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 195 | #1,040 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 168 | #1,132 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 167 | #1,149 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (58)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 151 | #1,217 | 0.08 |
| 2014 | 149 | #1,225 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 138 | #1,262 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 155 | #1,173 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 166 | #1,109 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 139 | #1,258 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 147 | #1,220 | 0.07 |
| 2008 | 139 | #1,253 | 0.07 |
| 2007 | 135 | #1,288 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 124 | #1,322 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 142 | #1,138 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 149 | #1,071 | 0.08 |
| 2003 | 146 | #1,059 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 168 | #953 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 136 | #1,058 | 0.07 |
| 2000 | 133 | #1,069 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 116 | #1,128 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 104 | #1,187 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 127 | #1,004 | 0.07 |
| 1996 | 95 | #1,193 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 103 | #1,122 | 0.05 |
| 1994 | 99 | #1,137 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 97 | #1,140 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 107 | #1,055 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 119 | #975 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 104 | #1,033 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 100 | #1,026 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 52 | #1,462 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 57 | #1,293 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 52 | #1,362 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 40 | #1,595 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 45 | #1,425 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 41 | #1,491 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 56 | #1,241 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 47 | #1,378 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 63 | #1,146 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 51 | #1,292 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 44 | #1,395 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 46 | #1,335 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 34 | #1,575 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 25 | #1,890 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 15 | #2,554 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #3,736 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,009 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,277 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,464 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 6 | #3,568 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #3,311 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Bilal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Bilal has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 58 years of records.
Girls and boys named Bilal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Bilal, and how old are they?
5,730 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,863 Americans ever recorded as Bilal. The median Bilal alive today is 19 years old; half are between 9 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 6,544 people named Bilal (17 women and girls, 6,527 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,823 born in the U.S. The Census count is 36% above 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 | 6 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 283 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,160 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,090 |
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 Bilal born?
The states with the most babies named Bilal are California, New York and Texas, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 22 | #992 | 0.8× |
| New York | 20 | #718 | 2.0× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,354 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | #667 | 0.7× |
| Minnesota | 12 | #449 | 2.1× |
| Illinois | 10 | #810 | 1.6× |
| Massachusetts | 7 | #631 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 6 | #1,008 | 1.6× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,655 | 0.5× |
| Maryland | 6 | #715 | 0.8× |
Where Bilal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Bilal is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1964 it was given 2.3 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 Bilal 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 167,483 babies since 1880, Bilal is the second most given (3.5% of them). In 2025 it was given to 167 of their 212 babies (79%), the most given that year.
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 Bilal
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 Bilal and names like it
- Compare Bilal and BillBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sBilal peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Bilal since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Bilal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Bilal.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Bilal alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with BMost given first.