Hamdi
An Arabic masculine name meaning "praiseworthy" or "one who praises".
Name Census estimates that about 524 living Americans carry the first name Hamdi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Hamdi today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hamdi births was 2016 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hamdi. 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 Hamdi with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
524
~ 1 in 654,111 Americans
Peak year
2016
31 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,123
Tracked since 1988
Census
Hamdi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,549 people with the first name Hamdi, which placed it at #9,116 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
#9,116
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,549 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
73.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hamdi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamdi is Black at 73.1%. The next largest groups are White (24.3%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Hamdi 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 Hamdi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American73.1% · 1,132
- White24.3% · 376
- Two or more races1.4% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino0.4% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Hamdi
Hamdi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 530 total registrations, 134 (25.3%) were male and 396 (74.7%) were female.
Hamdi as a male name
- Ranked #9,275 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2005 (10 births)
Hamdi as a female name
- Ranked #9,123 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (25 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hamdi on both sides of the split. Of the 1,540 people counted with this name, 549 were male (35.6%) and 991 were female (64.4%).
Popularity
Hamdi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hamdi from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 213 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hamdi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hamdi 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 Hamdi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hamdis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Minnesota, Washington, New York recorded the most babies named Hamdi, while Ohio, New York, Washington recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hamdi
The name Hamdi has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is a masculine given name that is believed to have been derived from the Arabic root word "hamd," which means "praise" or "gratitude." This root word is closely connected to the concept of praising and expressing gratitude to God in the Islamic faith.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Hamdi can be found in historical texts and records dating back to the 7th century CE, during the early years of the Islamic era. It is possible that the name was inspired by the religious significance of the word "hamd" and the emphasis on praising and thanking God in Islam.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Hamdi. One of the earliest recorded figures was Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), an Ottoman statesman and diplomat who served as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century. Another prominent figure was Hamdi Bey (1876-1957), an accomplished Turkish archaeologist and artist who made significant contributions to the preservation of Ottoman art and culture.
In the realm of literature, the name Hamdi is associated with the acclaimed Egyptian novelist and playwright Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898-1987), whose full name was Tawfiq Ismail Hamdi al-Hakim. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Arabic literature and played a crucial role in the Egyptian literary renaissance of the 20th century.
Moving to the field of music, Hamdi Benmessaoud (1940-2015) was an influential Algerian singer and composer who helped popularize the genre of Rai music, a form of folk music that originated in the Algerian city of Oran. His contributions to Algerian music and culture earned him widespread recognition and acclaim.
Another notable figure with the name Hamdi was Hamdi Sayegh (1937-2015), a prominent Lebanese politician and diplomat who served as the Minister of Information and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Lebanon during the late 20th century. He played a significant role in Lebanese politics and international relations during a turbulent period in the country's history.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals who have borne the name Hamdi throughout history, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the cultural and historical significance of this name.
People
Hamdi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hamdi as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hamdi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hamdi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 524 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hamdi 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 654,111 US residents.
Is Hamdi a common name?
We classify Hamdi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 530 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hamdi most popular?
The single biggest year for Hamdi was 2016, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hamdi is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hamdi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,549 people with the name Hamdi, or 0.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,116 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 Hamdi 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 Hamdi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hamdi on both sides of the split. Of the 1,540 people counted with this name, 549 were male (35.6%) and 991 were female (64.4%). 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 Hamdi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamdi is Black at 73.1%. The next largest groups are White (24.3%) and Two or More Races (1.4%). 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 Hamdi most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Hamdi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.1% (1,132 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 Hamdi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hamdi a female name?
Yes, 74.7% of people registered as Hamdi in the SSA data are female. 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 Hamdi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hamdi 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 Hamdi 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 Hamdi as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Hamdi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.