Hamzah
A masculine name derived from the Arabic word meaning "steadfast" or "strong".
Name Census estimates that about 1,480 living Americans carry the first name Hamzah. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hamzah today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hamzah births was 2008 (67 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hamzah. 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 Hamzah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Hamzah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 231,591 Americans
Peak year
2008
67 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,916
Tracked since 1979
Census
Hamzah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,465 people with the first name Hamzah, which placed it at #9,474 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
#9,474
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,465 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hamzah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamzah is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.4%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Hamzah 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 Hamzah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.8% · 730
- Asian and Pacific Islander30.4% · 445
- Black or African American11.0% · 161
- Two or more races6.8% · 99
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 30
Popularity
Hamzah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hamzah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 512 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Hamzah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hamzah 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 Hamzah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hamzahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Hamzah, while Ohio, Maryland, Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 53 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hamzah
The name Hamzah is of Arabic origin, derived from the Arabic root word "hamza," which means "the glottal stop" or a specific consonant sound used in the Arabic language. This name has a deep historical and cultural significance in the Islamic tradition.
The name Hamzah first gained prominence in the 7th century CE, during the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the early Islamic era. It was the name of one of the Prophet's closest companions and uncles, Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib. Hamzah was renowned for his bravery, valor, and unwavering support for the Prophet and the Islamic faith. He played a crucial role in the early battles of Islam and was martyred in the Battle of Uhud in 625 CE.
Throughout Islamic history, the name Hamzah has been associated with valor and courage. Several notable figures have borne this name, including Hamzah al-Isfahani (949-1011 CE), a renowned Arab philologist and scholar who wrote extensively on Arabic grammar, literature, and poetry. Another prominent bearer of this name was Hamzah al-Zanji (1508-1588 CE), a Somali-born military leader and governor in the Ottoman Empire.
In the 13th century, a renowned Sufi mystic and poet, Hamzah Fansuri (1590-1630 CE), from Sumatra, Indonesia, gained recognition for his influential works on Islamic mysticism and spirituality. His poetic compositions, written in the Malay language, played a significant role in the spread of Islam in the region.
During the 19th century, Hamzah Pasha (1836-1909) was a prominent Ottoman statesman and military leader who served as the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) of the Ottoman Empire from 1878 to 1879. He played a pivotal role in the modernization efforts of the Ottoman Empire.
Another notable figure who bore the name Hamzah was Hamzah Mustafa Pasha (1872-1963), an Egyptian military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 1928 to 1929. He played a crucial role in the Egyptian nationalist movement and the struggle for independence from British colonial rule.
People
Hamzah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hamzah 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
Hamzah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hamzah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,480 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hamzah 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 231,591 US residents.
Is Hamzah a common name?
We classify Hamzah as "Rare". It ranks above 92.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,499 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hamzah most popular?
The single biggest year for Hamzah was 2008, when 67 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hamzah is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hamzah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,465 people with the name Hamzah, or 0.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,474 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 Hamzah 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 Hamzah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hamzah appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,466 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Hamzah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hamzah is White at 49.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (30.4%) and Black (11.0%). 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 Hamzah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hamzah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.8% (730 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 Hamzah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hamzah a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hamzah 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 Hamzah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hamzah 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 Hamzah 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 Americans are named Hamzah?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Hamzah at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.