Jamilah
Feminine · “beautiful”
Jamilah is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,656 girls against 16 boys since 1880.
Jamilah is the Arabic word for beautiful in its feminine form, and the root behind it covers beauty of character as much as of appearance — Arabic does not separate the two as sharply as English does.
How old is the name Jamilah?
Jamilah first appears in US birth records in 1965 — 60 years ago. The typical Jamilah alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 2,600 people named Jamilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Jamilah most popular?
Jamilah peaked in 1977, reaching #1498 nationally. Today it ranks #3517, 2,019 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From jamila to Jamilah
The story of Jamilah
Jamila has been in use across the Arab world since the classical period and is among the most-recognized Arabic women's names. It traveled with Arabic into Persian, Urdu, Turkish and the Malay world. It also entered African-American naming in the 1960s and 1970s, when families sought Arabic and Swahili names, which is why it appears in American records in numbers that Arabic emigration alone would not explain.
Meaning
beautiful
From Arabic jamil, beautiful, feminine jamila; the root j-m-l covers beauty, grace and the doing of good, and gives the word for a good deed as well as for a handsome face.
How the name formed
- jamila
- Jamilah
Related forms: Jamila · Cemile · Jameela · Jamila
Pronouncing Jamilah
jah-MEE-lah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is little variation.
Nicknames for Jamilah
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
- 1965
- Most girls named
- 197773 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1498reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −2.3%43 in 2025, from 44
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.
Jamilah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jamila in Arabic — spelling variant
- Cemile in Turkish — same name
- Jameela in Urdu — spelling variant
- Jamila in Swahili — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, New York, Illinois.
Jamilahs among us
people named Jamilah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was named Jamilah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Jamilah
- #3517
- Jamilah on the 2025 chart
- #746
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Jamilah went to 43 girls in 2025, but Jamila, Jamyla and Jamylah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 215, which makes it the 746th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,771 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 7,476 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 37,378 for Jamilah 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 Sherrye test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Jamilah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sherrye climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sherrye's path sketches the road Jamilah is walking now.
Jamilah 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 Jamilah is headed
Jamilah 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.
Jamilah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Jamilah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is direct and easy to explain.
- Mila and Jamie are both complete short forms in current use.
- Recognized across the Arab world, South Asia, Turkey and East Africa.
- Jamila without the h is the more standard transliteration.
- A name meaning beautiful sets an expectation the child did not choose.
- Jamila, Jamilah and Jameela are all in use and relatives may prefer different ones.
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What they receive
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Jamilah
Feminine · #3517 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Jamilahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Jamilah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Jamilah?
- Jamilah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Jamila is the more common one — 122 births in 2025 against 43 for Jamilah.
- How popular is the name Jamilah in 2025?
- Jamilah ranks #3517 among US girl names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Jamilah?
- About 1 in every 37,378 US girls born in 2025 was named Jamilah — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Jamilah with classmates?
- Jamilah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Jamilah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maida#3517 · Amada#3517 · Afton#3517 · Allura#3517 · Jaina#3517 · Hallee#3517 · Katara#3517 · Joella#3517
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Jamilah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Jamilah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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