Abou
A masculine Arabic name meaning "father" or "dad".
Name Census estimates that about 103 living Americans carry the first name Abou. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Abou today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Abou births was 2022 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Abou. 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 Abou with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
103
~ 1 in 3,327,712 Americans
Peak year
2022
9 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,914
Tracked since 2001
Census
Abou in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 356 people with the first name Abou, which placed it at #26,232 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
#26,232
National first-name rank
People counted
356
356 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
95.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Abou
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abou is Black at 95.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%) and White (1.1%). 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 Abou 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 Abou at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American95.2% · 339
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 6
- White1.1% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
- Two or more races0.6% · 2
Popularity
Abou: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Abou from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 49 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Abou remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Abou 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 Abou during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Abous live
Origin
Meaning and history of Abou
The name Abou has its origins in the Arabic language and culture, dating back to the 7th century CE. It is derived from the Arabic word "ab," which means "father" or "progenitor." In its original form, Abou was often used as a prefix or an honorific title to show respect and reverence for elders or individuals of importance.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Abou can be found in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. It appears in reference to the Prophet Muhammad's father, Abou Talib, who played a significant role in protecting and supporting the Prophet during the early days of Islam in Mecca.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Abou. One of the most renowned was Abou Bakr (573-634 CE), a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad and the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate after the Prophet's death. His leadership and contributions to the early Islamic community were instrumental in shaping the course of Islamic history.
Another prominent individual with the name Abou was Abou Nuwas (756-814 CE), a renowned Arab poet from the Abbasid era. His works, known for their wit, satire, and celebration of love and wine, have left an indelible mark on Arabic literature and poetry.
In the realm of science, Abou Raihan al-Biruni (973-1048 CE) was a renowned Persian scholar, mathematician, and polymath. His contributions to various fields, including astronomy, geography, and mathematics, were groundbreaking for his time and influenced the development of scientific thought in the Islamic world.
During the Mamluk era in Egypt, Abou al-Mahasin ibn Taghri Birdi (1409-1470 CE) was a prominent historian and writer. His comprehensive historical work, "Al-Nujum al-Zahirah fi Muluk Misr wa'l-Qahirah" (The Brilliant Stars on the Kings of Egypt and Cairo), is considered a valuable source for understanding the political and social landscape of that period.
In more recent times, Abou Diaby (1986-present) is a French professional footballer who has played for various clubs, including Arsenal and Marseille. Although his career was plagued by injuries, he is regarded as a talented and influential player in the world of football.
These are just a few examples of the many notable figures throughout history who have borne the name Abou, highlighting its rich cultural and historical significance within the Arabic-speaking world and beyond.
People
Abou + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Abou 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
Abou: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Abou?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Abou 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 3,327,712 US residents.
Is Abou a common name?
We classify Abou as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 104 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Abou most popular?
The single biggest year for Abou was 2022, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Abou is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Abou in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 356 people with the name Abou, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,232 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 Abou 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 Abou?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Abou leans strongly male. 355 people counted with this name were male (96.7%), compared with 12 female bearers (3.3%). 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 Abou?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Abou is Black at 95.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%) and White (1.1%). 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 Abou most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Abou in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.2% (339 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 Abou in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Abou a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Abou 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 Abou still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Abou 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 Abou 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 Abou?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Abou, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.