Hamza
- Pronunciation
- [Ham-za]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Strong Or Strength: Uncle To Prophet Muhammad: Also Meaning Baby Lion Or Lion Cub.
- Origin
- Arabic
About the Name Hamza
Hamza descends from the Arabic Ḥamza meaning "strong," "steadfast," or "baby lion" — connected to the Arabic ḥamuza (to be strong). The name's overwhelming Islamic anchor is Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib (c. 568–625 CE), the paternal uncle of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the most-revered foster-brothers of Muhammad's companions. Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib was killed at the Battle of Uhud in 625 CE and is known as "Asad Allah" (Lion of God).
Notable bearers include American basketball player Hamza Ali; the iconic Egyptian-American politician Hamza Yousef (the iconic Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland 2023–2024); and the contemporary fictional Hamza of various contemporary novels.
Hamza's American climb is recent: the name climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2005 to the US top 300 boys' rank by 2018 and the top 300 since. The name has been driven primarily by Muslim-American immigration. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the layered Arabic-Islamic-religious-historical pedigree (one of the foundational figures of early Islam), the in-built distinctive lion/strong etymological register, and the compact two-syllable -mza ending. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal warmth distinctive to Arabic-derived naming. The name reads as both classical-Islamic and contemporary American. Common nicknames Hamzy (the dominant short form, casual and warm), Hams, and the rare Hamz each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Hamza, Hamzah, and Hamze have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Hamza (essentially identical across Arabic/Turkish/Bosnian/Persian) and the original Arabic Ḥamza.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Hamza
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Hamza by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2024 with 565 boys named Hamza (boy rank #527 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #541 for boys (556 US births). That's 14 places below its 2024 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Hamza Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Hamza the strongest states are Minnesota, New York, New Jersey.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minnesota | #199 | 303 |
| 2 | New York | #322 | 524 |
| 3 | New Jersey | #354 | 211 |
| 4 | Virginia | #378 | 199 |
| 5 | Illinois | #420 | 246 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #451 | 36 |
| 7 | Michigan | #472 | 169 |
| 8 | Ohio | #485 | 198 |
| 9 | Washington | #522 | 122 |
| 10 | Iowa | #527 | 25 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #847 | 72 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #823 | 36 |
| 3 | Arizona | #799 | 26 |
| 4 | Missouri | #796 | 48 |
| 5 | North Carolina | #788 | 62 |
| 6 | Florida | #769 | 117 |
| 7 | Colorado | #682 | 36 |
| 8 | Texas | #636 | 404 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | #615 | 61 |
| 10 | California | #594 | 463 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Hamza in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Hamza?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Hamza to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Hamza against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).