Jaleel
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "exalted", "sublime", or "great one".
Name Census estimates that about 4,773 living Americans carry the first name Jaleel. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Jaleel today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaleel births was 1994 (255 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaleel. 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 Jaleel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.8K
~ 1 in 71,811 Americans
Peak year
1994
255 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,345
Tracked since 1971
Census
Jaleel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,482 people with the first name Jaleel, which placed it at #5,062 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
#5,062
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,482 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
84.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaleel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaleel is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Jaleel 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 Jaleel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American84.9% · 2,955
- Two or more races5.3% · 183
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 170
- White3.0% · 103
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 60
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Jaleel
Out of the 4,853 babies given the name Jaleel since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Jaleel as a male name
- Ranked #2,345 in 2024
- 60 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (255 births)
Jaleel as a female name
- Ranked #12,322 in 2000
- 7 female births in 2000
- Peak: 1995 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaleel leans strongly male. 3,422 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 60 female bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Jaleel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaleel from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,799 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jaleel 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 Jaleel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaleels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Georgia recorded the most babies named Jaleel, while Oklahoma, Kentucky, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 120 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaleel
The name Jaleel has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic word "jaleel," which means "great" or "majestic." The name is believed to have first emerged in the Middle East and North Africa regions during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century AD.
The name Jaleel is mentioned in various Islamic texts and religious scriptures, including the Quran and Hadith. It is often associated with the concept of God's greatness and majesty. In some Islamic traditions, Jaleel is considered one of the 99 names of Allah, representing the divine attribute of greatness and glory.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Jaleel can be found in the works of renowned Islamic scholars and philosophers from the medieval period. For instance, the 9th-century philosopher Al-Kindi, also known as Yakub ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi (801-873 AD), was referred to as "Al-Jaleel" due to his profound knowledge and contributions to various fields.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Jaleel. One prominent example is Jaleel Al-Din Rumi (1207-1273 AD), the famous Persian poet and Sufi mystic whose works, such as the Masnavi, have had a profound impact on Islamic literature and spirituality.
Another individual with the name Jaleel was Jaleel Shahnawaz (1852-1915), an Indian Muslim scholar and educator who played a significant role in the establishment of modern educational institutions in the subcontinent.
In the 20th century, Jaleel Akhtar (1892-1970) was a renowned Indian poet and writer who made significant contributions to Urdu literature. He was also a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement.
Jaleel Andrabi (1923-2017) was a distinguished Kashmiri poet and writer who received numerous accolades, including the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padma Shri, for his literary works in the Kashmiri language.
Jaleel White (born 1976) is an American actor and writer best known for his role as Steve Urkel in the popular sitcom "Family Matters."
People
Jaleel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaleel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with J
Other first names starting with J with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Jaleel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaleel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,773 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaleel 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 71,811 US residents.
Is Jaleel a common name?
We classify Jaleel as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,853 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaleel most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaleel was 1994, when 255 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaleel is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaleel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,482 people with the name Jaleel, or 1.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,062 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 Jaleel 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 Jaleel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaleel leans strongly male. 3,422 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 60 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Jaleel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaleel is Black at 84.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.3%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Jaleel most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jaleel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.9% (2,955 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 Jaleel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaleel a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Jaleel 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 Jaleel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaleel 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 Jaleel 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 are called Jaleel?
You can see how many people have the name Jaleel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.