Naji
Of Arabic origin, meaning successful or winner.
Name Census estimates that about 768 living Americans carry the first name Naji. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Naji today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Naji births was 2024 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Naji. 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 Naji with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
768
~ 1 in 446,295 Americans
Peak year
2024
32 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,564
Tracked since 1980
Census
Naji in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,066 people with the first name Naji, which placed it at #11,857 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
#11,857
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,066 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Naji
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Naji is White at 54.7%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (6.7%). 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 Naji 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 Naji at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.7% · 583
- Black or African American31.9% · 340
- Two or more races6.7% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino4.2% · 45
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Popularity
Naji: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Naji from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 218 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Naji remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Naji 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 Naji during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Najis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, California recorded the most babies named Naji, while Virginia, Pennsylvania, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Naji
The name Naji originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the Middle East. It is derived from the Arabic word "najeeh," which means "successful" or "prosperous." The name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, with some of the earliest recorded instances dating back to the 7th century AD.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Naji was a renowned Arab poet and scholar who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century AD. His full name was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Naji, and he was celebrated for his contributions to Arabic literature and poetry.
In the 11th century, another notable figure named Naji al-Basri emerged as a prominent Islamic scholar and jurist. He was born in Basra, Iraq, and is known for his works on Islamic jurisprudence and theology.
During the 12th century, a Persian philosopher and poet named Naji al-Din al-Razi gained recognition for his works on ethics, metaphysics, and literature. He hailed from the city of Rayy, in modern-day Iran, and his writings had a significant influence on the intellectual discourse of his time.
In the 14th century, a Syrian historian and biographer named Naji al-Din al-Ghazzi made valuable contributions to the study of Islamic history. His comprehensive biographical work, "Kawakib al-Sa'irah," documented the lives of notable scholars and intellectuals of the era.
Another prominent individual with the name Naji was the 19th-century Egyptian scholar and reformer, Naji al-Nawawi. He played a crucial role in the development of modern Arabic literature and advocated for educational and social reforms in Egypt during the Ottoman period.
These are just a few examples of notable figures throughout history who bore the name Naji. The name has transcended geographical boundaries and cultural contexts, reflecting its enduring presence and significance across various regions and time periods.
People
Naji + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Naji as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Naji: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Naji?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 768 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Naji 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 446,295 US residents.
Is Naji a common name?
We classify Naji as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 781 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Naji most popular?
The single biggest year for Naji was 2024, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Naji 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 Naji in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,066 people with the name Naji, or 0.35 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,857 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 Naji 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 Naji?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Naji leans strongly male. 994 people counted with this name were male (93.4%), compared with 70 female bearers (6.6%). 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 Naji?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Naji is White at 54.7%. The next largest groups are Black (31.9%) and Two or More Races (6.7%). 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 Naji most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Naji in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.7% (583 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 Naji in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Naji a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Naji 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 Naji still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Naji 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 Naji 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 Americans are named Naji?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.