Jamal
- Pronunciation
- [Ja-mal]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Beauty
- Origin
- Arabic
About the Name Jamal
Jamal is an Arabic given name derived from the root j-m-l, meaning "beauty" or "handsomeness." In classical Arabic the word jamāl (جمال) expresses physical and moral beauty alike, and the name has been carried by men across the Arabic-speaking world and throughout Muslim communities globally for many centuries. Its adoption into English-speaking contexts grew through the twentieth century alongside broader contact with Arabic and Islamic naming traditions.
Jamal first appeared in the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000, peaking in 2001 at rank #346. The name held a consistent presence in the lower half of the chart through the following two decades, with 267 births recorded at rank #868 in 2021 — the last year it appeared in the top-1000 window. Total top-1000-qualifying births reached approximately 9,673. The name's steady use across the period reflects genuine ongoing affection within communities where Arabic and Islamic naming traditions are part of everyday life. The recorded variant is Jimal.
Jamal is a clean two-syllable name whose melodic open vowels travel well across languages. Its combination of deep Arabic roots and accessible English pronunciation has helped it maintain a quiet, stable presence in American naming well after its early-2000s peak.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Jamal
US Popularity History (2000–2021)
Annual US births named Jamal by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2001 with 786 boys named Jamal (boy rank #346 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2021, ranked #868 for boys (267 US births). That's 522 places below its 2001 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 Jamal 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 Jamal the strongest states are Mississippi, Louisiana, Maryland.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #483 | 27 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #523 | 95 |
| 3 | Maryland | #530 | 83 |
| 4 | South Carolina | #531 | 30 |
| 5 | Michigan | #598 | 127 |
| 6 | Alabama | #632 | 27 |
| 7 | Georgia | #659 | 134 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #660 | 33 |
| 9 | Minnesota | #693 | 27 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | #705 | 25 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #937 | 146 |
| 2 | Tennessee | #871 | 26 |
| 3 | Missouri | #862 | 16 |
| 4 | New York | #862 | 130 |
| 5 | New Jersey | #816 | 45 |
| 6 | North Carolina | #805 | 74 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | #802 | 68 |
| 8 | Indiana | #790 | 43 |
| 9 | Virginia | #772 | 60 |
| 10 | Illinois | #750 | 101 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Jamal in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Jamal?
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 Jamal to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Jamal against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).