Jamal
Jamal was given to 169 boys in 2025, #1,197 among boys’ names; 33,501 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 32,000 Americans named Jamal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 33 years old and half are between 23 and 40.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jamal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Jamal mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Jamal is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “beauty” (جَمَال).
From Arabic جَمَال (jamāl, “beauty”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Jamal?
#1,197 among boys’ names, 2025
Jamal fell from #739 in 2015 to #1,197 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.17 to 0.10 per 1,000.
1,253 babies in 1993, the peak
Jamal peaked in 1993, when 1,253 babies were given it (1,245 boys, #233 among boys’ names). The 169 births of 2025 are 13% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 169 | #1,197 | 0.10 |
| 2024 | 175 | #1,184 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 211 | #1,036 | 0.12 |
| 2022 | 201 | #1,087 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 267 | #868 | 0.15 |
| 2020 | 245 | #912 | 0.14 |
| 2019 | 258 | #860 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 305 | #768 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 308 | #762 | 0.17 |
| 2016 | 353 | #703 | 0.19 |
Every recorded year (76)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 330 | #739 | 0.17 |
| 2014 | 306 | #766 | 0.16 |
| 2013 | 303 | #752 | 0.16 |
| 2012 | 345 | #690 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 351 | #673 | 0.18 |
| 2010 | 407 | #609 | 0.21 |
| 2009 | 410 | #613 | 0.21 |
| 2008 | 456 | #567 | 0.22 |
| 2007 | 483 | #532 | 0.23 |
| 2006 | 514 | #505 | 0.25 |
| 2005 | 553 | #463 | 0.28 |
| 2004 | 589 | #442 | 0.30 |
| 2003 | 655 | #398 | 0.33 |
| 2002 | 726 | #363 | 0.37 |
| 2001 | 786 | #346 | 0.40 |
| 2000 | 726 | #366 | 0.37 |
| 1999 | 798 | #335 | 0.42 |
| 1998 | 689 | #372 | 0.36 |
| 1997 | 835 | #317 | 0.44 |
| 1996 | 988 | #282 | 0.52 |
| 1995 | 1,059 | #266 | 0.56 |
| 1994 | 1,231 | #240 | 0.64 |
| 1993 | 1,245 | #233 | 0.63 |
| 1992 | 1,196 | #240 | 0.60 |
| 1991 | 1,112 | #249 | 0.55 |
| 1990 | 1,112 | #247 | 0.54 |
| 1989 | 1,104 | #239 | 0.55 |
| 1988 | 1,020 | #237 | 0.53 |
| 1987 | 988 | #238 | 0.53 |
| 1986 | 807 | #269 | 0.44 |
| 1985 | 620 | #323 | 0.34 |
| 1984 | 517 | #354 | 0.29 |
| 1983 | 466 | #374 | 0.26 |
| 1982 | 561 | #336 | 0.31 |
| 1981 | 523 | #343 | 0.29 |
| 1980 | 581 | #327 | 0.33 |
| 1979 | 526 | #343 | 0.31 |
| 1978 | 553 | #317 | 0.34 |
| 1977 | 583 | #319 | 0.35 |
| 1976 | 552 | #320 | 0.35 |
| 1975 | 469 | #357 | 0.30 |
| 1974 | 458 | #359 | 0.29 |
| 1973 | 418 | #376 | 0.27 |
| 1972 | 434 | #377 | 0.27 |
| 1971 | 414 | #399 | 0.23 |
| 1970 | 284 | #477 | 0.15 |
| 1969 | 255 | #480 | 0.14 |
| 1968 | 88 | #790 | 0.05 |
| 1967 | 40 | #1,187 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 37 | #1,246 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 22 | #1,690 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 23 | #1,675 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 26 | #1,558 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 24 | #1,641 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 23 | #1,713 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 20 | #1,836 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 28 | #1,512 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 18 | #1,927 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 15 | #2,137 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 7 | #3,348 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 6 | #3,600 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 6 | #3,537 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #3,955 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,486 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 5 | #3,989 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 6 | #3,337 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Jamal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Jamal has been given almost only to boys: 266 girls in 76 years of records.
Girls and boys named Jamal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jamal, and how old are they?
32,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 33,501 Americans ever recorded as Jamal. The median Jamal alive today is 33 years old; half are between 23 and 40.
The 2020 Census counted 29,768 people named Jamal (271 women and girls, 29,497 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 31,209 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 158 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5,270 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 14,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 9,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,410 |
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 Jamal born?
The states with the most babies named Jamal are Florida, Texas and Michigan, with 42% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 18 | #826 | 1.4× |
| Texas | 17 | #1,231 | 0.6× |
| Michigan | 13 | #617 | 1.1× |
| California | 11 | #1,541 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 10 | #829 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #876 | 1.2× |
| New York | 8 | #1,351 | 1.8× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,080 | 1.2× |
| Louisiana | 6 | #712 | 2.3× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,428 | 1.9× |
Where Jamal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jamal is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1946 it was given 4.9 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 Jamal 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 69,443 babies since 1880, Jamal is the most given (48% of them). In 2025 it was given to 169 of their 335 babies (50%), 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 Jamal
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 Jamal and names like it
- Compare Jamal and JamelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sJamal peaked in 1993.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jamal since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Jamal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Jamal.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Jamal alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with JMost given first.