Jihad
Jihad was given to 22 boys in 2025, #4,611 among boys’ names; 2,063 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,000 Americans named Jihad and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 18 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Jihad by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Jihad?
#4,611 among boys’ names, 2025
Jihad fell from #3,821 in 2015 to #4,611 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 14.6 to 12.9 per million.
96 babies in 2000, the peak
Jihad peaked in 2000, when 96 boys were given it, #1,334 among boys’ names. The 22 births of 2025 are 23% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 22 | #4,611 | 12.9 |
| 2024 | 22 | #4,626 | 12.8 |
| 2023 | 29 | #3,837 | 17.0 |
| 2022 | 22 | #4,614 | 12.6 |
| 2021 | 14 | #6,167 | 8.0 |
| 2020 | 20 | #4,776 | 11.6 |
| 2019 | 25 | #4,168 | 13.9 |
| 2018 | 26 | #4,045 | 14.3 |
| 2017 | 29 | #3,713 | 15.7 |
| 2016 | 19 | #5,026 | 10.0 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 28 | #3,821 | 14.6 |
| 2014 | 28 | #3,729 | 14.6 |
| 2013 | 35 | #3,153 | 18.5 |
| 2012 | 35 | #3,198 | 18.5 |
| 2011 | 36 | #3,134 | 19.0 |
| 2010 | 31 | #3,489 | 16.2 |
| 2009 | 44 | #2,782 | 22.2 |
| 2008 | 40 | #2,976 | 19.6 |
| 2007 | 39 | #2,997 | 18.8 |
| 2006 | 49 | #2,492 | 23.8 |
| 2005 | 40 | #2,729 | 20.0 |
| 2004 | 41 | #2,614 | 20.7 |
| 2003 | 51 | #2,161 | 25.8 |
| 2002 | 65 | #1,774 | 33.5 |
| 2001 | 93 | #1,371 | 47.9 |
| 2000 | 96 | #1,334 | 48.9 |
| 1999 | 76 | #1,494 | 39.6 |
| 1998 | 64 | #1,629 | 33.5 |
| 1997 | 67 | #1,541 | 35.5 |
| 1996 | 73 | #1,428 | 38.5 |
| 1995 | 73 | #1,380 | 38.3 |
| 1994 | 87 | #1,244 | 45.0 |
| 1993 | 71 | #1,362 | 36.2 |
| 1992 | 66 | #1,401 | 33.0 |
| 1991 | 63 | #1,432 | 31.2 |
| 1990 | 40 | #1,913 | 19.5 |
| 1989 | 43 | #1,772 | 21.5 |
| 1988 | 36 | #1,859 | 18.8 |
| 1987 | 35 | #1,843 | 18.7 |
| 1986 | 28 | #2,073 | 15.2 |
| 1985 | 28 | #2,040 | 15.1 |
| 1984 | 23 | #2,260 | 12.7 |
| 1983 | 28 | #1,925 | 15.6 |
| 1982 | 40 | #1,549 | 22.0 |
| 1981 | 25 | #2,114 | 14.0 |
| 1980 | 16 | #2,888 | 9.0 |
| 1979 | 27 | #1,969 | 15.7 |
| 1978 | 27 | #1,896 | 16.4 |
| 1977 | 9 | #3,993 | 5.5 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,649 | 4.5 |
| 1974 | 7 | #4,375 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,278 | 4.5 |
| 1971 | 7 | #4,156 | 4.0 |
| 1969 | 6 | #4,157 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Jihad a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Jihad has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 54 years of records.
Girls and boys named Jihad: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Jihad, and how old are they?
2,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,063 Americans ever recorded as Jihad. The median Jihad alive today is 27 years old; half are between 18 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 2,070 people named Jihad (125 women and girls, 1,945 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,895 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 103 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 729 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 851 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 317 |
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 Jihad born?
The states with the most babies named Jihad are New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, with 77% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 344 | not ranked | 5.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 227 | not ranked | 2.7× |
| New York | 151 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| California | 93 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 49 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Florida | 20 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| North Carolina | 18 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Michigan | 15 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Ohio | 7 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| District of Columbia | 5 | not ranked | 0.6× |
Where Jihad is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Jihad is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1969 it was given 5.8 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 Jihad 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 2,137 babies since 1880, Jihad is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 22 of their 22 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 Jihad
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 Jihad and names like it
- Compare Jihad and JihaadBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sJihad peaked in 2000.
- New Jersey’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Jihad since 1910.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Jihad.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Jihad alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with JMost given first.