Faisal
Faisal was given to 40 boys in 2025, #3,051 among boys’ names; 2,150 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,090 Americans named Faisal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 11 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Faisal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Faisal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Faisal is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “arbiter” (literally).
From Arabic فَيْصَل (fayṣal, literally “arbiter”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Faisal?
#3,051 among boys’ names, 2025
Faisal fell from #2,121 in 2015 to #3,051 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 34.4 to 23.4 per million.
82 babies in 2014, the peak
Faisal peaked in 2014, when 82 boys were given it, #1,818 among boys’ names. The 40 births of 2025 are 49% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 40 | #3,051 | 23.4 |
| 2024 | 47 | #2,762 | 27.3 |
| 2023 | 35 | #3,366 | 20.5 |
| 2022 | 51 | #2,624 | 29.2 |
| 2021 | 41 | #2,991 | 23.4 |
| 2020 | 52 | #2,477 | 30.1 |
| 2019 | 52 | #2,532 | 29.0 |
| 2018 | 46 | #2,682 | 25.3 |
| 2017 | 64 | #2,138 | 34.6 |
| 2016 | 60 | #2,242 | 31.6 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 66 | #2,121 | 34.4 |
| 2014 | 82 | #1,818 | 42.7 |
| 2013 | 65 | #2,075 | 34.4 |
| 2012 | 74 | #1,925 | 39.0 |
| 2011 | 64 | #2,087 | 33.7 |
| 2010 | 50 | #2,478 | 26.1 |
| 2009 | 44 | #2,773 | 22.2 |
| 2008 | 36 | #3,177 | 17.6 |
| 2007 | 49 | #2,546 | 23.6 |
| 2006 | 41 | #2,800 | 19.9 |
| 2005 | 50 | #2,338 | 25.0 |
| 2004 | 44 | #2,503 | 22.2 |
| 2003 | 39 | #2,587 | 19.7 |
| 2002 | 39 | #2,519 | 20.1 |
| 2001 | 43 | #2,316 | 22.1 |
| 2000 | 51 | #1,993 | 26.0 |
| 1999 | 70 | #1,574 | 36.5 |
| 1998 | 43 | #2,131 | 22.5 |
| 1997 | 45 | #1,999 | 23.9 |
| 1996 | 37 | #2,224 | 19.5 |
| 1995 | 35 | #2,259 | 18.4 |
| 1994 | 39 | #2,089 | 20.2 |
| 1993 | 46 | #1,827 | 23.5 |
| 1992 | 40 | #1,980 | 20.0 |
| 1991 | 35 | #2,103 | 17.3 |
| 1990 | 29 | #2,387 | 14.1 |
| 1989 | 39 | #1,901 | 19.5 |
| 1988 | 34 | #1,916 | 17.8 |
| 1987 | 29 | #2,075 | 15.5 |
| 1986 | 33 | #1,851 | 17.9 |
| 1985 | 27 | #2,088 | 14.6 |
| 1984 | 23 | #2,249 | 12.7 |
| 1983 | 25 | #2,108 | 13.9 |
| 1982 | 26 | #2,074 | 14.3 |
| 1981 | 28 | #1,961 | 15.6 |
| 1980 | 19 | #2,569 | 10.7 |
| 1979 | 20 | #2,407 | 11.6 |
| 1978 | 19 | #2,403 | 11.6 |
| 1977 | 25 | #1,964 | 15.2 |
| 1976 | 23 | #2,070 | 14.7 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,672 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,398 | 6.4 |
| 1973 | 11 | #3,078 | 7.1 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Faisal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Faisal has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 53 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Faisal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Faisal, and how old are they?
2,090 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,150 Americans ever recorded as Faisal. The median Faisal alive today is 20 years old; half are between 11 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 4,863 people named Faisal (17 women and girls, 4,846 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,858 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 130 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 769 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 696 |
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 Faisal born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 9 | #1,234 | 1.2× |
Where Faisal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Faisal is most over-represented in New York: since 1973 it was given 1.2 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 Faisal 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,355 babies since 1880, Faisal is the most given (91% of them). In 2025 it was given to 40 of their 40 babies (100%), 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 Faisal
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 Faisal and names like it
- Compare Faisal and FaysalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sFaisal peaked in 2014.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Faisal since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Faisal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Faisal.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Faisal alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with FMost given first.