Hamid
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "praised", "worthy of praise".
Name Census estimates that about 888 living Americans carry the first name Hamid. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hamid today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hamid births was 2021 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hamid. 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 Hamid with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
888
~ 1 in 385,985 Americans
Peak year
2021
28 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,388
Tracked since 1966
Census
Hamid in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,611 people with the first name Hamid, which placed it at #3,638 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
#3,638
National first-name rank
People counted
5.6K
5,611 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hamid
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamid is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Hamid 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 Hamid at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.1% · 3,482
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.8% · 941
- Two or more races10.6% · 593
- Black or African American8.4% · 472
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 114
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 9
Popularity
Hamid: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hamid from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 198 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hamid remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hamid 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 Hamid during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hamids live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Hamid, while New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hamid
The name Hamid has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word "hamd" which means "praise" or "to praise." The name is believed to have been in use as early as the 7th century AD, during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Hamid can be found in historical Arabic literature and texts. For instance, Hamid ibn Abdur-Rahman, an 8th-century Arab poet and scholar, is mentioned in several classical Arabic works. Another early example is Hamid al-Tusi, a 10th-century Persian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of algebra.
In Islamic tradition, the name Hamid is also one of the 99 names of Allah (God), meaning "The Praised One." This association with divine attributes has contributed to the name's popularity among Muslim communities throughout history.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Hamid was Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, a 12th-century Persian philosopher and mystic who played a significant role in the development of Sufi thought and literature. Another prominent individual was Hamid al-Ghazali, a renowned 11th-century Persian scholar, theologian, and jurist who is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Islamic philosophy.
In more recent times, Hamid Karzai, born in 1957, was the President of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014, leading the country during a turbulent period following the Taliban regime. Hamid Mir, born in 1966, is a prominent Pakistani journalist and author who has covered major events in the region.
Other notable individuals with the name Hamid include Hamid Ansari, an Indian politician who served as the Vice President of India from 2007 to 2017, and Hamid Dabashi, an Iranian-American professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, born in 1951.
The name Hamid has been widely used across various regions and cultures influenced by Arabic and Islamic traditions, including the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia. Its enduring popularity can be attributed to its deep-rooted religious and cultural significance, as well as its association with esteemed historical figures.
People
Hamid + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hamid 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
Hamid: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hamid?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 888 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hamid 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 385,985 US residents.
Is Hamid a common name?
We classify Hamid as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 911 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hamid most popular?
The single biggest year for Hamid was 2021, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hamid is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hamid in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,611 people with the name Hamid, or 1.86 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,638 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 Hamid 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 Hamid?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hamid appears almost entirely male. Of the 5,602 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Hamid?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamid is White at 62.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.8%) and Two or More Races (10.6%). 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 Hamid most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hamid in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.1% (3,482 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 Hamid in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hamid a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hamid 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 Hamid still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hamid 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 Hamid 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 share the name Hamid?
Want to know how many Americans are named Hamid? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.