Kamilah
A feminine Arabic name meaning "perfect" or "complete".
Name Census estimates that about 6,243 living Americans carry the first name Kamilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kamilah today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kamilah births was 2019 (341 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kamilah. 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 Kamilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.2K
~ 1 in 54,902 Americans
Peak year
2019
341 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,444
Tracked since 1971
Census
Kamilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,169 people with the first name Kamilah, which placed it at #4,464 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
#4,464
National first-name rank
People counted
4.2K
4,169 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
45.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kamilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamilah is Black at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (40.6%) and White (6.1%). 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 Kamilah 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 Kamilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American45.6% · 1,902
- Hispanic or Latino40.6% · 1,694
- White6.1% · 253
- Two or more races5.9% · 244
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 61
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 15
Popularity
Kamilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kamilah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,435 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kamilah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kamilah 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 Kamilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kamilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Kamilah, while Wisconsin, Utah, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 130 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kamilah
The name Kamilah is of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "kamil," which means "perfect" or "complete." The name is believed to have originated in the Middle East during the early centuries of Islam, around the 7th century AD.
Kamilah is a feminine form of the masculine name Kamil. It has been commonly used in Arabic-speaking countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, for centuries. The name may also be found spelled as Kamila or Camilia in some regions.
In Islamic tradition, the name Kamilah is associated with the concept of perfection and completeness. It is mentioned in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, in reference to the completeness of faith and devotion to God.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kamilah can be found in the works of medieval Arab scholars and historians, such as Ibn Khallikan's "Wafayat al-A'yan" (Deaths of Eminent Men), which mentions a female scholar named Kamilah bint al-Samh al-Asadiyyah (d. 767 AD).
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Kamilah. These include Kamilah al-Sayrafi (d. 1180), a renowned poet and scholar from Aleppo, Syria, and Kamilah Shawkat (1892-1986), an Egyptian feminist and political activist who fought for women's rights and social reforms.
Another famous Kamilah was Kamilah Qibti (1917-2009), an Egyptian actress and singer who appeared in over 100 films and plays during her career. She was considered a icon of Egyptian cinema and was honored with numerous awards for her contributions to the arts.
In the realm of literature, Kamilah Shihada (1916-2009) was a Palestinian writer and poet whose works explored themes of identity, exile, and the Palestinian struggle. Her poetry collections, such as "Ladder of Womanhood," garnered critical acclaim and helped amplify the voices of Palestinian women.
Lastly, Kamilah Jubran (b. 1955) is a contemporary Palestinian-Canadian writer and academic who has published several novels and short story collections, including "Sharatat" and "In This Harsh World." Her works often explore issues of displacement, cultural identity, and the experiences of Arab women.
People
Kamilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kamilah 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
Kamilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kamilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,243 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kamilah 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 54,902 US residents.
Is Kamilah a common name?
We classify Kamilah as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,395 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kamilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Kamilah was 2019, when 341 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kamilah is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kamilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,169 people with the name Kamilah, or 1.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,464 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 Kamilah 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 Kamilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kamilah appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,168 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kamilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kamilah is Black at 45.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (40.6%) and White (6.1%). 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 Kamilah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Kamilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.6% (1,902 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 Kamilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kamilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kamilah 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 Kamilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kamilah 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 Kamilah 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 Kamilah?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Kamilah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.