Jama
Feminine · “gatherer”
Jama is given to both — 1,552 girls and 101 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Jama is four letters covering two entirely separate names. In Somalia it is one of the most common men's names in the country, from an Arabic word about gathering, borne by presidents and poets and half the men in any given room. In American registers it is mostly a woman's name, cut from Jamie or built as a coinage, with no connection to the Somali one at all.
How old is the name Jama?
Jama first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Jama alive today was born around 1967, making them about 58 years old. About 1,400 people named Jama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jama most popular?
Jama peaked in 1961, reaching #1533 nationally. See the whole 1961 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From An Arabic root about gathering to Jama
The story of Jama
The Arabic root behind the Somali name is unusually productive: it gives the word for a mosque where the community gathers for Friday prayer, the word for a university, and a whole set of terms about assembly and collection. Somali took the personal name from it through the long history of Arabic influence on the Horn of Africa, and it is now thoroughly Somali rather than felt as a borrowing. In America the same four letters arrived by an entirely different road, as a clipping or a coinage in mid-century registers, and were used mostly for daughters. Two naming systems on two continents, using different material, arriving at the same word: this happens more often than it seems it should, and it is why a spelling can carry two histories that never touch.
Meaningscholars disagree
gatherer
The Somali name descends from an Arabic word connected to gathering or bringing together, which also gives the word for a congregational mosque and for a university. That reading is solid for that name. The American name is a different word that happens to be spelled the same way, with no established source, and no meaning can be given for it. The spelling cannot tell you which of the two a family meant.
How the name formed
- An Arabic root about gathering
- Jama as a common Somali man's name
- Independently in American registers as a woman's name
- The same four letters carrying two histories
Related forms: Jaamac · Jami
Pronouncing Jama
JAY-muh
Two syllables, stress on the first, in American use. Somali says it quite differently, with a broad first vowel and a consonant at the end that English has no letter for, so the two names look identical and sound nothing alike.
Nicknames for Jama
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
- 1918
- Most girls named
- 196350 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1533reached in 1961
- Change vs 2003
- −33.3%6 in 2005, from 9
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.
Jama in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jaamac in Somali — same name
- Jami in Arabic — related form
Jamas among us
people named Jama are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Jama sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, easy and impossible to mispronounce within English.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- It exists as a real and common name somewhere in the world, which most four-letter coinages do not.
- In Somali communities it is unambiguously a man's name and will be read that way.
- There is no American meaning to give, and the Somali one belongs to a different name.
- It will be heard as Jayma, Jenna or Gemma by people not listening closely.
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Jama
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Jamas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Jama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Jama in 2025?
- Jama is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Jama with classmates?
- Jama will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More J names
The most-given names starting with J, all years combined.
Jennifer#586 · Jessica#665 · Janet#2778 · Julie#872 · Joyce#1071 · Joan#1085 · Julia#131 · Jean#2117
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jama? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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