Jamila
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning beautiful or lovely.
Name Census estimates that about 7,831 living Americans carry the first name Jamila. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jamila today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamila births was 1977 (418 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamila. 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 Jamila with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.8K
~ 1 in 43,769 Americans
Peak year
1977
418 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,560
Tracked since 1962
Census
Jamila in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,579 people with the first name Jamila, which placed it at #2,730 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
#2,730
National first-name rank
People counted
8.6K
8,579 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamila
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamila is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are White (13.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.1%). 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 Jamila 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 Jamila at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American58.1% · 4,983
- White13.3% · 1,142
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.1% · 1,035
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 799
- Two or more races6.9% · 595
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 25
Popularity
Jamila: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamila from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 1,887 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Jamila remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamila 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 Jamila during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamilas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Jamila, while Oklahoma, Iowa, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 190 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamila
The name Jamila has its roots in the Arabic language and is derived from the word "jamil," meaning beautiful or lovely. It originated in Arab cultures and regions where Arabic was the primary language spoken.
The earliest recorded mention of the name Jamila can be traced back to medieval Arabic literature and poetry, where it was often used as a symbolic name to represent a beautiful woman or a love interest. The name gained widespread popularity across the Islamic world during this time.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Jamila was Jamila of Tunis, a 13th-century Hafsid princess from the Maghreb region of North Africa. She was known for her beauty, intelligence, and patronage of the arts and literature.
In the 14th century, Jamila al-Hudhali was a renowned Arab poet from the Arabian Peninsula. Her poetic works, which explored themes of love, nature, and spirituality, were widely celebrated and have been preserved in various anthologies.
During the Ottoman Empire era, Jamila Sultan was a prominent figure in the 16th century. She was the daughter of Sultan Selim I and played an influential role in the Ottoman court as a patron of the arts and a supporter of charitable endeavors.
In more recent history, Jamila Mukhtar Al-Alailima was an influential Iraqi feminist and activist born in 1918. She was a prominent figure in the women's rights movement in the Middle East and worked tirelessly to promote education and social reform.
Another notable figure named Jamila was Jamila Bouhired, an Algerian revolutionary born in 1935. She played a significant role in the Algerian War of Independence against French colonial rule and later became a prominent activist for women's rights and social justice causes.
The name Jamila has continued to be popular across various cultures and regions, particularly in the Arab world, North Africa, and parts of South Asia. It remains a beloved and celebrated name, carrying the essence of beauty, grace, and loveliness.
People
Jamila + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamila 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
Jamila: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamila?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,831 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamila 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 43,769 US residents.
Is Jamila a common name?
We classify Jamila as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,198 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamila most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamila was 1977, when 418 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamila is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamila in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,579 people with the name Jamila, or 2.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,730 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 Jamila 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 Jamila?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamila appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,585 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Jamila?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamila is Black at 58.1%. The next largest groups are White (13.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.1%). 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 Jamila most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamila in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (4,983 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 Jamila in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamila a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jamila 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 Jamila still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamila 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 Jamila 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 Jamila?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.