Jamirah
Arabic name meaning "modest" or "restrained from the forbidden things".
Name Census estimates that about 653 living Americans carry the first name Jamirah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Jamirah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jamirah births was 2003 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jamirah. 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.
People living today
653
~ 1 in 524,892 Americans
Peak year
2003
68 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,634
Tracked since 1992
Census
Jamirah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 465 people with the first name Jamirah, which placed it at #21,716 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
#21,716
National first-name rank
People counted
465
465 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
88.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jamirah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamirah is Black at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Jamirah 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 Jamirah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American88.6% · 412
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 25
- Two or more races3.7% · 17
- White1.9% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Jamirah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jamirah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 319 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Jamirah 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 Jamirah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jamirahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Jamirah, while Alabama, New York, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jamirah
The name Jamirah is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language, with roots dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a feminine name derived from the Arabic word "jamirah," which means "a live coal" or "a glowing ember." This name is often associated with warmth, passion, and an intense inner fire.
In the Islamic tradition, the name Jamirah is sometimes linked to the concept of "nur," or divine light. It is believed that this name was chosen by some Muslim families to represent the spiritual radiance and illumination they wished for their daughters to embody.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Jamirah can be traced back to the 12th century, during the height of the Islamic Golden Age. Historical records from this period mention several notable women who bore this name, including Jamirah bint Al-Muqtadir, a princess from the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad.
Throughout the centuries, the name Jamirah has been carried by women from various cultural backgrounds and walks of life. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Jamirah Al-Andalusiyah, a renowned Andalusian poet and scholar who lived in the 11th century. Her works, which explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human experience, have left an indelible mark on Arabic literature.
In the 13th century, Jamirah bint Abi Bakr Al-Sadafi was a prominent female jurist and religious scholar from Damascus. Her expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and her contributions to legal discourse were highly respected in her time.
During the Ottoman Empire, Jamirah Khanum was a influential figure in the 16th century. She was a powerful and influential wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, known for her intelligence, political acumen, and patronage of the arts and culture.
In more recent history, Jamirah Al-Maktoum, born in 1959, is a prominent member of the ruling family of Dubai and a philanthropist known for her work in promoting education and women's empowerment in the United Arab Emirates.
While the name Jamirah has its roots in the Arabic language, it has transcended cultural boundaries and been embraced by diverse communities around the world, each adding their own unique interpretations and associations to its rich tapestry of meaning.
People
Jamirah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jamirah 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
Jamirah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jamirah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 653 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jamirah 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 524,892 US residents.
Is Jamirah a common name?
We classify Jamirah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 662 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jamirah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jamirah was 2003, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jamirah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jamirah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 465 people with the name Jamirah, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,716 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 Jamirah 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 Jamirah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jamirah leans strongly female. 451 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 12 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Jamirah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jamirah is Black at 88.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.4%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Jamirah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jamirah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.6% (412 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 Jamirah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jamirah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Jamirah 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 Jamirah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jamirah 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 Jamirah 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 named Jamirah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.