Abdalla
Masculine Arabic name meaning "servant of God" or "worshiper of God".
Name Census estimates that about 385 living Americans carry the first name Abdalla. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdalla today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdalla births was 2007 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdalla. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Abdalla with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
385
~ 1 in 890,271 Americans
Peak year
2007
19 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,431
Tracked since 1973
Census
Abdalla in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,170 people with the first name Abdalla, which placed it at #11,112 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#11,112
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdalla
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdalla is Black at 52.7%. The next largest groups are White (41.6%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Abdalla described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Abdalla at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.7% · 617
- White41.6% · 487
- Two or more races3.8% · 44
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 5
Popularity
Abdalla: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdalla from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 132 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abdalla remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdalla by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Abdalla during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abdallas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdalla
Abdalla is a masculine given name of Arabic origin. Its roots can be traced back to the Semitic word "abd", meaning "servant" or "slave", and "Allah", which refers to the God in Islam. The name essentially means "servant of Allah" or "God's servant".
In the early days of Islam, during the 7th century AD, it was common for Arabs to name their children with names that reflected their religious beliefs and devotion to Allah. The name Abdalla became popular among Muslims and spread across the Middle East and North Africa.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Hadith, a collection of traditions and sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. The Hadith mentions several companions of the Prophet who bore the name Abdalla, including Abdalla ibn Abbas, a highly respected scholar and interpreter of the Quran.
Throughout history, many notable figures have carried the name Abdalla. One of the most famous was Abdalla ibn Yasin (1035-1059), a Berber religious leader and the founder of the Almoravid dynasty, which ruled over a vast empire stretching from Morocco to Spain and parts of West Africa.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Abdalla al-Idrisi (1099-1166), a renowned Arab cartographer and geographer who created one of the most accurate maps of the world during his time, known as the Tabula Rogeriana.
In the 13th century, Abdalla al-Qalyubi (1202-1270) was an influential Egyptian Shafi'i scholar and jurist, known for his contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and his work on the interpretation of the Quran.
During the Ottoman Empire, Abdalla Pasha (1553-1638) was a prominent military leader and statesman who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1628.
In more recent times, Abdalla Khalil (1892-1964) was a prominent Egyptian novelist and playwright, renowned for his contributions to modern Arabic literature and his depictions of rural life in Egypt.
These are just a few examples of the many notable figures throughout history who have borne the name Abdalla, a name that carries a deep significance and connection to the Islamic faith and Arabic culture.
People
Abdalla + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdalla as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Abdalla: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdalla?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 385 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdalla going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 890,271 US residents.
Is Abdalla a common name?
We classify Abdalla as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 390 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdalla most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdalla was 2007, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdalla is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdalla in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,170 people with the name Abdalla, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,112 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Abdalla in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Abdalla?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdalla leans strongly male. 1,156 people counted with this name were male (98.2%), compared with 21 female bearers (1.8%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Abdalla?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdalla is Black at 52.7%. The next largest groups are White (41.6%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Abdalla most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abdalla in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.7% (617 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Abdalla in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdalla a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdalla in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Abdalla still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdalla in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Abdalla can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Abdalla?
Want to know how many Americans are named Abdalla? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.