Jameela
Feminine · “Arabic "beautiful”
Jameela is one of the most straightforwardly complimentary names in Arabic: jamīl means beautiful, and jamīla is its feminine. It belongs to a large class of Arabic names formed directly from adjectives — Karima, generous; Latifa, gentle; Nabila, noble — where the name is simply the quality, unmediated.
How old is the name Jameela?
Jameela first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Jameela alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 900 people named Jameela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jameela most popular?
Jameela peaked in 1986, reaching #3554 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,284 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From جميلة (Jamīla) to Jameela
The story of Jameela
The name is standard across the Arabic-speaking world and travels wherever Arabic does — into Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Swahili and Hausa. It entered American use substantially in the 1970s, when African American families adopted Arabic and Swahili names in large numbers as part of a broader cultural turn, and it is that wave rather than immigration that produces the 1986 American peak. Jameela is the phonetic English transliteration, spelling the long i as ee; Jamila is the scholarly one. Both are common.
Meaning
Arabic "beautiful, graceful"
From the Arabic root j-m-l, which covers beauty, grace and comeliness; the same root gives jamāl, beauty, and the men's name Jamal. Jamīla is the feminine adjective. The etymology is entirely settled and the word is in everyday use in Arabic, which means native speakers hear the meaning directly rather than as a piece of trivia.
How the name formed
- جميلةJamīla
- Jamila
- Jameela
Related forms: جميلة · Jamila · Cemile · Jamila · جمیلہ
Pronouncing Jameela
jah-MEE-lah
Three syllables with the stress firmly on the long middle one. The j is the English j sound in most transliterations, though Egyptian Arabic gives a hard G. The final vowel is a full AH, not a reduced uh.
Nicknames for Jameela
High
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 199330 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3554reached in 1986
- Change vs 2024
- −27.3%16 in 2025, from 22
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.
Jameela in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- جميلة in Arabic — same name
- Jamila in Arabic (scholarly) — transliteration
- Cemile in Turkish — same name
- Jamila in Swahili — same name
- جمیلہ in Urdu — same name
Jameelas among us
people named Jameela are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Jameela
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jameela
- #6838
- Jameela on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jameela went to 16 girls in 2025, but Jameelah and Jamela are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,911 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Jameela itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jacquilyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jameela's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquilyn climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquilyn's path sketches the road Jameela is walking now.
Jameela 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
Jameela beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jameela in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, positive and immediately transparent to hundreds of millions of speakers.
- The ee spelling removes all ambiguity about the middle vowel for English readers.
- It is used across the Arab world, East and West Africa, South Asia and Turkey.
- Jamila is the more standard transliteration and will often be written instead.
- The name states a compliment about appearance, which some families prefer to avoid.
- It is three full syllables with no reduction, which is long for everyday use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Jameela to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Jameela? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Jameela
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jameelas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Jameela are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jameela?
- Jameela is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Jameelah and Jamela.
- How popular is the name Jameela in 2025?
- Jameela ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jameela?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Jameela — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jameela with classmates?
- Jameela will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jameela
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jameela? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jameela and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle