Kamila
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "perfect" or "complete".
Name Census estimates that about 19,064 living Americans carry the first name Kamila. It sits at #292 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamila today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamila births was 2022 (1,383 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamila. 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 Kamila with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kamila is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
19K
~ 1 in 17,979 Americans
Peak year
2022
1,383 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#292
Tracked since 1963
Census
Kamila in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 12,706 people with the first name Kamila, which placed it at #2,114 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
#2,114
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
12,706 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
70.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamila
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamila is Hispanic at 70.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Kamila 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 Kamila at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino70.6% · 8,972
- White19.2% · 2,444
- Black or African American4.1% · 525
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 407
- Two or more races2.6% · 330
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 28
Popularity
Kamila: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamila from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,593 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamila remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamila 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 Kamila during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamilas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kamila, while Delaware, District of Columbia, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 426 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamila
The name Kamila is derived from the Arabic name Kamilah, which means "perfect" or "complete." It has its roots in the Arabic word "kamil," meaning "perfect" or "complete."
The name Kamila has been in use since ancient times in the Arabic-speaking world, particularly in regions where Islam has had a significant influence. It was a popular name among Muslims, as it carries a positive and virtuous meaning.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kamila can be found in the 9th century, when a woman named Kamila bint al-Muzaffar, a poetess and scholar from Basra, Iraq, gained recognition for her literary works.
In medieval Islamic history, there are records of several notable women bearing the name Kamila. One such example is Kamila bint al-Muqaddasi, a 12th-century scholar and poet from Jerusalem who was renowned for her expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and Arabic literature.
Throughout the centuries, the name Kamila has been carried by various influential individuals across different fields. One notable figure was Kamila Shamsie, a 19th-century Indian writer and social reformer (1839-1928), who advocated for women's education and rights.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Kamila Stösslová (1892-1935), a Czech artist and painter known for her avant-garde works and association with the Cubist movement.
In more recent times, Kamila Valieva (born 2006) is a Russian figure skater who gained international attention for her performances at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
While the name Kamila has its origins in the Arabic language, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions, particularly in Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, and among Muslim communities worldwide.
People
Kamila + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamila as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kamila: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamila?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 19,064 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamila 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 17,979 US residents.
Is Kamila a common name?
We classify Kamila as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamila most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamila was 2022, when 1,383 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamila is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamila in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 12,706 people with the name Kamila, or 4.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,114 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 Kamila 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 Kamila?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamila appears almost entirely female. Of the 12,706 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Kamila?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamila is Hispanic at 70.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Kamila most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Kamila in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.6% (8,972 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 Kamila in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamila a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamila 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 Kamila still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamila 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 Kamila 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 Kamila?
You can see how many people share the name Kamila on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.