Mouhamadou
A Fula/Fulani masculine name referring to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.
Name Census estimates that about 427 living Americans carry the first name Mouhamadou. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mouhamadou today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mouhamadou births was 2009 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mouhamadou. 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 Mouhamadou with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
427
~ 1 in 802,703 Americans
Peak year
2009
23 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,645
Tracked since 1994
Census
Mouhamadou in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 484 people with the first name Mouhamadou, which placed it at #21,098 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
#21,098
National first-name rank
People counted
484
484 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
96.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mouhamadou
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mouhamadou is Black at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.0%) and White (0.8%). 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 Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American96.9% · 469
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 5
- White0.8% · 4
- Two or more races0.8% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Mouhamadou: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mouhamadou from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 156 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mouhamadou remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mouhamadous live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mouhamadou
The given name Mouhamadou originates from the Arabic language and Islamic culture. It is a variant spelling of the name Muhammad, which means "praised" or "praiseworthy" in Arabic. The name is derived from the Arabic root word "ḥ-m-d" meaning "to praise."
Mouhamadou is predominantly used in West African countries, particularly in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, where Islam is the predominant religion. It is believed that the name gained popularity in these regions during the spread of Islam across North and West Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries.
The name Mouhamadou has deep historical and religious significance in Islamic tradition. It is the name of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, who was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 570 CE and died in 632 CE. The Prophet Muhammad is considered the last and most revered prophet in Islam, and his name holds great importance for Muslims worldwide.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mouhamadou can be found in the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. The name appears numerous times throughout the Quran, referring to the Prophet Muhammad and his teachings.
Several notable historical figures have borne the name Mouhamadou, including:
1. Mouhamadou Lamine Dramé (1886-1958), a Senegalese religious leader and founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, a prominent Sufi Islamic order in Senegal.
2. Mouhamadou Mbacké (1924-1994), a Senegalese politician and former President of Senegal from 1987 to 1992.
3. Mouhamadou Moustapha Mbacké (1877-1945), a Senegalese Islamic scholar and the second Khalife of the Mouride Brotherhood.
4. Mouhamadou Cissé (born 1975), a Senegalese professional basketball player who played in the NBA for the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors.
5. Mouhamadou Habib Sy (1953-2021), a Senegalese historian and writer known for his works on West African history and Islamic culture.
The name Mouhamadou continues to be widely used in West African countries with significant Muslim populations, reflecting the enduring cultural and religious significance of the name in these regions.
People
Mouhamadou + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mouhamadou as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mouhamadou: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mouhamadou?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 427 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mouhamadou 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 802,703 US residents.
Is Mouhamadou a common name?
We classify Mouhamadou as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 431 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mouhamadou most popular?
The single biggest year for Mouhamadou was 2009, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mouhamadou is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mouhamadou in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 484 people with the name Mouhamadou, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,098 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 Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mouhamadou leans strongly male. 485 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Mouhamadou?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mouhamadou is Black at 96.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (1.0%) and White (0.8%). 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 Mouhamadou most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mouhamadou in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.9% (469 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 Mouhamadou in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mouhamadou a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou 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 Mouhamadou?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.