Abdullah
Masculine · Arabic roots · “servant of God”
Abdullah is one of the oldest and most honored names in the Arabic-speaking world, carried continuously for some fourteen centuries. In the United States it has kept a quiet, steady presence across generations, strongest where the country's largest Muslim communities have settled.
How old is the name Abdullah?
Abdullah first appears in US birth records in 1947 — 78 years ago. The typical Abdullah alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 9,200 people named Abdullah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Abdullah most popular?
Abdullah peaked in 2014, reaching #636 nationally. Today it ranks #763, 127 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Abdullah appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From ʿAbd Allāh (Arabic, 'servant of God') to Abdullah
The story of Abdullah
The name is Arabic and predates Islam: ʿAbd Allāh was the name of the Prophet Muhammad's father, which gave it a special standing from the faith's first generation onward. A hadith recorded in the Sahih Muslim collection counts Abdullah among the names most beloved to God, and parents from Morocco to Indonesia have taken that seriously ever since. It reached the United States with twentieth-century Muslim immigration and has been handed down here without interruption since.
Meaning
servant of God
From the Arabic ʿabd, 'servant', joined to Allāh, 'God'. The reading is not in dispute — it is one of the clearest name etymologies there is, and across the Muslim world it is held up as a model of what a name should say.
How the name formed
- ʿAbd AllāhArabic, 'servant of God'
- Abdullah
Related forms: Abdallah · Abdulla · Abdullah · Abdulah
Pronouncing Abdullah
ahb-DOOL-lah
Stress lands on the middle syllable. Arabic speakers give the double L real weight; the anglicized ab-DOO-lah is universally understood.
Nicknames for Abdullah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1947
- Most boys named
- 2016406 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #636reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +5.0%337 in 2025, from 321
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Abdullah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Abdallah in Arabic — transliteration
- Abdulla in Arabic — transliteration
- Abdullah in Turkish — same name
- Abdulah in Bosnian — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Abdullahs among us
people named Abdullah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 5,068 born in 2025 was named Abdullah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Heriberto test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Abdullah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Heriberto climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Heriberto's path sketches the road Abdullah is walking now.
Abdullah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Abdullah is headed
Abdullah should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Abdullah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Abdullah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized instantly across the entire Muslim world, from Morocco to Indonesia.
- A settled, transparent meaning — the name says exactly one thing, and says it plainly.
- A continuous history of use running back fourteen centuries.
- Short forms exist for every register, from the family Abdu to the formal full name.
- English renders the name several ways — Abdallah, Abdulla, Abdullah — so he will spell it out for teachers and forms all his life.
- It announces Muslim heritage plainly, which most families choosing it count as the point; it is worth knowing the name will always carry that.
- English speakers often clip it to Abdul, which in Arabic is an unfinished phrase — some families mind, others don't.
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What they receive
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Abdullah
Masculine · Arabic roots · #763 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Abdullahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,200 people named Abdullah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Abdullah in 2025?
- Abdullah ranks #763 among US boy names in 2025, with 337 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Abdullah?
- About 1 in every 5,068 US boys born in 2025 was named Abdullah — 337 in all.
- Will my child share the name Abdullah with classmates?
- Abdullah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Abdullah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Campbell#763 · Santos#763 · Magnus#763 · Ayan#762 · Mustafa#760 · Dario#760 · Izael#767 · Brayan#768
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Abdullah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Abdullah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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