Abdoulaye
Servant of the Most High One (Arabic origin)
Name Census estimates that about 903 living Americans carry the first name Abdoulaye. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abdoulaye today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abdoulaye births was 2007 (47 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abdoulaye. 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 Abdoulaye with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
903
~ 1 in 379,573 Americans
Peak year
2007
47 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,943
Tracked since 1992
Census
Abdoulaye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,703 people with the first name Abdoulaye, which placed it at #8,510 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
#8,510
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,703 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
96.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abdoulaye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdoulaye is Black at 96.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.6%). 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 Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American96.2% · 1,639
- Two or more races2.0% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 10
- White0.5% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Abdoulaye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abdoulaye from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 343 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Abdoulaye remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abdoulayes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Abdoulaye, while Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 110 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Abdoulaye
The name Abdoulaye has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a compound name formed by combining the Arabic words "Abd" meaning "servant" and "Al-Laye" which is derived from one of the 99 names of God in Islam, "Al-Wali" meaning "the Protector" or "the Guardian."
This name was initially prevalent among the Muslim communities of West Africa, particularly in regions like Senegal, Mali, and Guinea, where the Islamic faith had a strong influence. The earliest recorded instances of the name can be traced back to the 13th century, during the era of the Mali Empire, a powerful medieval West African state centered around the present-day nation of Mali.
One of the earliest notable figures to bear the name Abdoulaye was Abdoulaye Yero, a 14th-century ruler of the Songhai Empire, which dominated a significant portion of West Africa during the 15th and 16th centuries. His reign, which spanned from 1370 to 1390, was marked by territorial expansion and the consolidation of power within the empire.
In the 19th century, Abdoulaye Seck (1833-1904) was a prominent Senegalese Islamic scholar and religious leader who played a crucial role in the spread of Islam and the establishment of Sufi orders in the region. He founded the village of Thiès, which later became an important urban center in Senegal.
Another influential figure was Abdoulaye Wade (born 1926), a Senegalese politician who served as the President of Senegal from 2000 to 2012. He was a pivotal figure in the country's transition to democracy and received recognition for his efforts to promote economic development and social reforms.
In the realm of literature, Abdoulaye Sadji (1910-1961) was a renowned Senegalese writer and educator who contributed significantly to the development of African literature in the French language. His works, such as "Nini, mulâtresse du Sénégal" (Nini, the Mulatto of Senegal), explored themes of identity, colonialism, and the interplay of African and European cultures.
The name Abdoulaye has also gained recognition in the world of sports, with Abdoulaye Diop-Favard (born 1977) being a prominent figure. He is a Senegalese former professional basketball player who played in the NBA and represented the Senegalese national team in international competitions, contributing to the growing popularity of basketball in West Africa.
People
Abdoulaye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abdoulaye 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
Abdoulaye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abdoulaye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 903 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abdoulaye 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 379,573 US residents.
Is Abdoulaye a common name?
We classify Abdoulaye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 912 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abdoulaye most popular?
The single biggest year for Abdoulaye was 2007, when 47 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abdoulaye is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abdoulaye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,703 people with the name Abdoulaye, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,510 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 Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abdoulaye appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,706 people counted with this name, 99.6% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Abdoulaye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abdoulaye is Black at 96.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (0.6%). 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 Abdoulaye most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abdoulaye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.2% (1,639 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 Abdoulaye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abdoulaye a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye 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 Abdoulaye as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.