Jaylan
A unisex name of Arabic origin meaning "strength, resilience, and determination".
Name Census estimates that about 5,414 living Americans carry the first name Jaylan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Jaylan today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jaylan births was 2006 (369 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jaylan. 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 Jaylan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.4K
~ 1 in 63,309 Americans
Peak year
2006
369 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,237
Tracked since 1989
Census
Jaylan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,493 people with the first name Jaylan, which placed it at #4,232 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
#4,232
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,493 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jaylan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaylan is Black at 66.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.9%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Jaylan 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 Jaylan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American66.5% · 2,988
- White12.9% · 581
- Hispanic or Latino10.5% · 471
- Two or more races7.3% · 329
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 38
Gender
Gender distribution for Jaylan
Jaylan leans heavily male at 85.0% of total registrations, but 824 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Jaylan as a male name
- Ranked #3,237 in 2024
- 37 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (321 births)
Jaylan as a female name
- Ranked #12,797 in 2022
- 7 female births in 2022
- Peak: 2000 (55 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaylan leans strongly male. 3,681 people counted with this name were male (81.9%), compared with 812 female bearers (18.1%).
Popularity
Jaylan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jaylan from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,018 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
Jaylan 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 Jaylan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Jaylans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Jaylan, while Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 161 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jaylan
The name Jaylan is thought to have originated from the Arabic language, derived from the words "jeel" meaning generation or people, and "an" meaning possession or belonging. It is believed to have first emerged in the Middle East region during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
The earliest recorded use of the name Jaylan can be traced back to Islamic historical texts and manuscripts from that era. It was initially more commonly used as a surname or family name among Arab communities, but gradually gained popularity as a given name as well.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Jaylan was a 9th-century Arabian scholar and astronomer, Jaylan ibn Abi'l-Shukr al-Basri, who lived from 819 to 896 CE. He made significant contributions to the field of mathematics and wrote several influential treatises on astronomy and celestial mechanics.
Another notable figure with the name Jaylan was Jaylan al-Harawi, a 12th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic. He is best known for his collection of mystical poetry titled "Divan-e-Jaylan," which explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human soul's journey towards enlightenment.
In the 14th century, Jaylan ibn Abi'l-Hasan al-Baghdadi was a prominent Islamic scholar and jurist who served as the chief judge (qadi al-qudat) of Baghdad during the reign of the Jalayirid dynasty. His rulings and legal interpretations were highly regarded and influential in the region.
During the Ottoman Empire era, Jaylan Pasha was a 16th-century Ottoman statesman and military commander who served as the Governor of Damascus and later as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1555 to 1556.
In more recent times, Jaylan Amir Weisberger was an American author and journalist who lived from 1920 to 2009. He wrote several books on Middle Eastern history, culture, and politics, and his works were widely acclaimed for their insightful analysis and thorough research.
While the name Jaylan is not as common in modern times, it continues to be used within certain cultural and linguistic communities, carrying with it a rich historical legacy and cultural significance.
People
Jaylan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jaylan 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
Jaylan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jaylan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,414 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jaylan 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 63,309 US residents.
Is Jaylan a common name?
We classify Jaylan as "Rare". It ranks above 96.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,489 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jaylan most popular?
The single biggest year for Jaylan was 2006, when 369 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jaylan is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Jaylan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,493 people with the name Jaylan, or 1.49 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,232 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 Jaylan 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 Jaylan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Jaylan leans strongly male. 3,681 people counted with this name were male (81.9%), compared with 812 female bearers (18.1%). 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 Jaylan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jaylan is Black at 66.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.9%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Jaylan most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jaylan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (2,988 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 Jaylan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jaylan a male name?
Yes, 85.0% of people registered as Jaylan 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 Jaylan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jaylan 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 Jaylan 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 Jaylan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Jaylan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.