Bilal
Masculine · “Moisture”
Bilal is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 5,858 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Bilal is the name of the man Islamic tradition remembers as the first muezzin — an Ethiopian-born companion of the Prophet Muhammad, freed from slavery, chosen to call the community to prayer because of his voice. Fourteen centuries later the name is still given from Morocco to Malaysia, and it has been quietly present in American records since the middle of the last century. Two syllables, six letters, and the stress lands on the second: bih-LAHL.
How old is the name Bilal?
Bilal first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Bilal alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 5,700 people named Bilal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bilal most popular?
Bilal peaked in 2002, reaching #954 nationally. Today it ranks #1212, 258 places below that high. See the whole 2002 chart.
Where it comes from
From بِلَال (Bilāl, Arabic) to Bilal
The story of Bilal
Bilal is Arabic, and its history in the wider world begins with one man: Bilal ibn Rabah, born in Mecca in the sixth century to an enslaved Abyssinian mother, freed by Abu Bakr, and appointed by Muhammad to give the call to prayer. Because of him the name spread wherever Islam did — into Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Bengali, Bosnian, Hausa, Swahili, Malay and Indonesian, keeping almost exactly the same shape in each. It reached the United States on several currents at once, through Arab immigration, through East African and South Asian families, and through American Muslim naming from the 1960s onward. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable across all of that travel, which is unusual for a name transliterated out of Arabic script.
Meaning
Moisture, wetting — water that refreshes
From the Arabic root b-l-l (balla, "to moisten, to wet"). The sense is of water that relieves dryness, which is why it is sometimes rendered more loosely as "that which quenches thirst."
How the name formed
- بِلَالBilāl, Arabic
- BilalTurkish, Persian, Urdu
- BilalEnglish
Related forms: بِلَال · Bilal · بلال · Bilal · Bilal · Bilali
Pronouncing Bilal
bih-LAHL
Stress on the second syllable, with a long open "ah". Turkish speakers often say it closer to bee-LAL. In American English the common stumbles are BYE-lal and BILL-al, both easily corrected once.
Nicknames for Bilal
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
- 1964
- Most boys named
- 2018195 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #954reached in 2002
- Change vs 2024
- −4.6%167 in 2025, from 175
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.
Bilal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- بِلَال in Arabic — transliteration
- Bilal in Turkish — same name
- بلال in Urdu — transliteration
- Bilal in Bosnian — same name
- Bilal in Indonesian / Malay — same name
- Bilali in Swahili — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Minnesota.
Bilals among us
people named Bilal are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 10,228 born in 2025 was named Bilal
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 Sharif test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bilal's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sharif climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sharif's path sketches the road Bilal is walking now.
Bilal 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 Bilal is headed
Bilal 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.
Bilal beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bilal in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds once heard, with a single dominant spelling across dozens of languages — rare for a name that came through Arabic script.
- Recognized instantly across the Arabic-speaking world, Turkey, the Balkans, South Asia, West Africa and Southeast Asia.
- Two syllables and six letters: short on a form, easy for a child to write early.
- A continuous record in the United States going back decades, with no boom-and-bust curve behind it.
- Carries one of the best-documented namesakes in Islamic history, if that matters to your family.
- Outside communities where it is already familiar, expect to correct the stress — BYE-lal and BILL-al are the usual first guesses. One repetition normally fixes it.
- Belal, Bilaal and Bilel all circulate as transliterations, so your child will occasionally be spelled a different way by someone who has met a different Bilal.
- The name is inseparable from its Islamic history, which is the point for many families and worth thinking through for those choosing it purely on sound.
- It is uncommon enough in American schools that your child will likely be the only one — pleasant for most children, though it does mean the name gets noticed on a roll call.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bilal
Masculine · #1212 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bilals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,700 people named Bilal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bilal in 2025?
- Bilal ranks #1212 among US boy names in 2025, with 167 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bilal?
- About 1 in every 10,228 US boys born in 2025 was named Bilal — 167 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bilal with classmates?
- Bilal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bilal
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jahkai#1212 · Kruz#1212 · Dovid#1212 · Harlow#1212 · Draven#1217 · Syed#1217 · Jahziel#1217 · Luan#1217
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bilal? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bilal and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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