Talal
A masculine Arabic name meaning "fresh plant that grows after rain".
Name Census estimates that about 707 living Americans carry the first name Talal. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Talal today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Talal births was 2014 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Talal. 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 Talal with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
707
~ 1 in 484,801 Americans
Peak year
2014
32 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,162
Tracked since 1971
Census
Talal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,425 people with the first name Talal, which placed it at #9,663 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
#9,663
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,425 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Talal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talal is White at 74.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (14.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Talal 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 Talal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.9% · 1,067
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.7% · 210
- Two or more races5.6% · 80
- Black or African American3.2% · 46
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 22
Popularity
Talal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Talal 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 254 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Talal remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Talal 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 Talal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Talals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Talal, while New York, Michigan, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Talal
The name Talal has its origins in the Arabic language and can be traced back to the Middle Eastern region. It is derived from the Arabic word "tala'a," which means "to rise" or "to appear." This name is believed to have been in use since ancient times, with possible references in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry and literature.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Talal can be found in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. In Surah An-Nur (Chapter 24, Verse 35), there is a reference to "Talal," which is interpreted as a metaphor for the light of guidance or the light of faith.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Talal. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Talal ibn Ruzayk (born around 580 AD), a renowned Arab poet from the Banu Tamim tribe in pre-Islamic Arabia. His poetry has been preserved in various anthologies and is considered a significant contribution to early Arabic literature.
In the 20th century, Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (1909-1976) was a prominent member of the Saudi royal family. He served as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1965 and was known for his efforts to modernize the country's education system and promote social reforms.
Another notable figure was Talal Nayer (1916-2000), an Egyptian actor and filmmaker who appeared in over 200 films and is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Egyptian cinema.
In the realm of sports, Talal Al-Meshal (born in 1967) is a former Kuwaiti football player who represented his national team and played for several clubs in Kuwait and Qatar.
Talal Akashee (born in 1952) is an Iraqi-American author and professor who has written extensively on Middle Eastern history, politics, and culture. His works have shed light on various aspects of the region's rich heritage and contemporary issues.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have carried the name Talal throughout history, each leaving their mark in their respective fields and contributing to the cultural tapestry of the regions they hailed from.
People
Talal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Talal as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Talal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Talal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 707 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Talal 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 484,801 US residents.
Is Talal a common name?
We classify Talal as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 719 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Talal most popular?
The single biggest year for Talal was 2014, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Talal 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 Talal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,425 people with the name Talal, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,663 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 Talal 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 Talal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Talal appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,424 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Talal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talal is White at 74.9%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (14.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Talal most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Talal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.9% (1,067 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 Talal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Talal a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Talal 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 Talal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Talal 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 Talal 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 Talal?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.