Khalid
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "eternal" or "immortal".
Name Census estimates that about 7,779 living Americans carry the first name Khalid. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Khalid today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Khalid births was 2019 (273 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Khalid. 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 Khalid with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
7.8K
~ 1 in 44,061 Americans
Peak year
2019
273 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#936
Tracked since 1962
Census
Khalid in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,364 people with the first name Khalid, which placed it at #2,279 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
#2,279
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
36.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Khalid
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khalid is Black at 36.5%. The next largest groups are White (34.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.5%). 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 Khalid 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 Khalid at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American36.5% · 4,153
- White34.4% · 3,914
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.5% · 2,324
- Two or more races5.7% · 648
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 298
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 27
Popularity
Khalid: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Khalid 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 2,092 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Khalid remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Khalid 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 Khalid during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Khalids live
The SSA's state-level files cover 31 states and territories. New York, California, Minnesota recorded the most babies named Khalid, while Iowa, Connecticut, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 187 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Khalid
The name Khalid has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word "khalada" which means "to last forever" or "to be eternal". The name was widely used in the Arabian Peninsula during the early days of Islam.
One of the most famous historical figures with this name was Khalid ibn al-Walid, a celebrated military commander during the early Islamic conquests in the 7th century. He was known as the "Sword of Allah" for his military prowess and played a crucial role in the spread of Islam across the Middle East and parts of the Persian Empire.
The name Khalid also appears in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, as one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. This association with Islamic history and tradition has contributed to the name's widespread popularity among Muslims around the world.
In ancient Arabic literature, the name Khalid is often associated with qualities such as strength, bravery, and endurance. This is reflected in various poems and stories from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, where characters with this name are portrayed as heroic figures.
Throughout history, there have been many notable individuals who bore the name Khalid. One of the earliest recorded examples is Khalid ibn Barmak, a prominent Persian vizier during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century. Another notable figure is Khalid al-Nabulsi, a renowned Sufi scholar and poet who lived in the 17th century in Damascus.
Other famous individuals with the name Khalid include Khalid ibn Yazid, a rebel leader during the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century, and Khalid ibn al-Walid ibn Talal, a member of the Jordanian royal family and a successful businessman and diplomat in the 20th century.
People
Khalid + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Khalid 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
Khalid: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Khalid?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7,779 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Khalid 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 44,061 US residents.
Is Khalid a common name?
We classify Khalid as "Rare". It ranks above 97.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,946 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Khalid most popular?
The single biggest year for Khalid was 2019, when 273 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Khalid is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Khalid in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,364 people with the name Khalid, or 3.76 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,279 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 Khalid 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 Khalid?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Khalid appears almost entirely male. Of the 11,363 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Khalid?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Khalid is Black at 36.5%. The next largest groups are White (34.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.5%). 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 Khalid most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Khalid in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.5% (4,153 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 Khalid in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Khalid a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Khalid 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 Khalid still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Khalid 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 Khalid 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 Khalid?
Want to know how many people share the name Khalid? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.