Jemiah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin with uncertain meaning, possibly related to "Jemimah" meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 311 living Americans carry the first name Jemiah. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Jemiah today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Jemiah births was 2012 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Jemiah. 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 Jemiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
311
~ 1 in 1,102,104 Americans
Peak year
2012
24 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2020 SSA rank
#11,209
Tracked since 1979
Census
Jemiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 406 people with the first name Jemiah, which placed it at #23,937 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
#23,937
National first-name rank
People counted
406
406 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Jemiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jemiah is Black at 72.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and White (8.1%). 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 Jemiah 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 Jemiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.9% · 296
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 39
- White8.1% · 33
- Two or more races6.7% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Jemiah
Jemiah is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 316 total registrations, 105 (33.2%) were male and 211 (66.8%) were female.
Jemiah as a male name
- Ranked #11,209 in 2020
- 6 male births in 2020
- Peak: 2004 (10 births)
Jemiah as a female name
- Ranked #11,563 in 2021
- 8 female births in 2021
- Peak: 2008 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jemiah on both sides of the split. Of the 408 people counted with this name, 159 were male (39.0%) and 249 were female (61.0%).
Popularity
Jemiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Jemiah 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 158 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
Jemiah 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 Jemiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Jemiah
The name Jemiah has its origins in the Arabic language, derived from the root "jamil" which means "beautiful" or "handsome". It is believed to have first appeared in the 7th century AD, during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
Throughout the medieval period, Jemiah was a relatively uncommon name in the Arab world, but gained some popularity among certain regions and communities. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in a 10th-century chronicle from Andalusia, which mentions a scholar named Jemiah ibn Abd al-Rahman.
As the Islamic faith and Arabic culture spread across North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe, the name Jemiah began to appear in various historical records and literary works. In the 12th century, a famous Sufi mystic and poet from Persia was known as Jemiah al-Din Rumi.
During the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over much of the Middle East and parts of Europe from the 14th to the 20th centuries, the name Jemiah was occasionally bestowed upon members of the nobility and ruling classes. One notable figure was Jemiah Pasha, a 16th-century Ottoman governor and military commander.
In more recent times, the name Jemiah has been associated with several influential figures in the Arab world. Jemiah al-Hubaishi was a 20th-century Yemeni poet and writer, known for his contributions to modern Arabic literature. Another notable bearer of the name was Jemiah al-Saudawi, a Saudi Arabian businessman and philanthropist who lived from 1925 to 2015.
While not as common as some other Arabic names, Jemiah has maintained a presence throughout history, carrying with it the connotations of beauty and grace associated with its linguistic roots. Its enduring use across various regions and cultures reflects the rich tapestry of Arabic influence in the world.
People
Jemiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Jemiah 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
Jemiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Jemiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 311 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Jemiah 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 1,102,104 US residents.
Is Jemiah a common name?
We classify Jemiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 316 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Jemiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Jemiah was 2012, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Jemiah 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 Jemiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 406 people with the name Jemiah, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,937 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 Jemiah 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 Jemiah?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Jemiah on both sides of the split. Of the 408 people counted with this name, 159 were male (39.0%) and 249 were female (61.0%). 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 Jemiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Jemiah is Black at 72.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and White (8.1%). 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 Jemiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Jemiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.9% (296 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 Jemiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Jemiah a female name?
Yes, 66.8% of people registered as Jemiah 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 Jemiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Jemiah 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 Jemiah 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 have the name Jemiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.