Mahad
Masculine · “praise”
Mahad is Somali for praise or thanks — mahadsanid is how a Somali speaker says thank you — and it is used as a name across the Somali-speaking world. Its American record follows Somali resettlement and peaks in 2017. It is also close to an Arabic name from a related root, which is not a coincidence.
How old is the name Mahad?
Mahad first appears in US birth records in 1990 — 35 years ago. The typical Mahad alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 800 people named Mahad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mahad most popular?
Mahad peaked in 2017, reaching #2840 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 3,303 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hamd to Mahad
The story of Mahad
Somali has absorbed a very large Arabic vocabulary through a thousand years of Islam and trade, and religious and moral terms in particular came across wholesale. Mahad is one of them, and it functions in Somali as an ordinary word and an ordinary name. Somali resettlement in the United States began in earnest in the 1990s, concentrated in Minnesota, Ohio, Washington and Maine, and American birth records carry Somali names in growing numbers from that point. Mahad's peak in 2017 reflects the size of the American-born Somali generation rather than any change in fashion.
Meaningscholars disagree
praise, thanks
Somali mahad means praise or gratitude, and the everyday expression mahadsanid, 'thank you', is built on it. The word is a borrowing from Arabic, where the root h-m-d gives hamd, 'praise', and the names Muhammad, Ahmad, Hamid and Mahmud — all meaning praised or praiseworthy. Somali Mahad belongs to that family by borrowing rather than by descent, and the connection is genuine.
How the name formed
- hamd
- mahad
- Mahad
Related forms: Mahad · Mahmud · Ahmad
Pronouncing Mahad
MAH-had
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a light h between the vowels and open a's throughout. English speakers reach it readily; the main error is swallowing the middle h.
Nicknames for Mahad
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
- 1990
- Most boys named
- 201742 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2840reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%14 in 2025, from 14
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.
Mahad in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mahad in Somali — same name
- Mahmud in Arabic — related form
- Ahmad in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Minnesota, Texas.
Mahads among us
people named Mahad are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Mahad
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Mahad
- #6143
- Mahad on the 2025 chart
- #907
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Mahad went to 14 boys in 2025, but Mahaad is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 21, which makes it the 907th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,236 places above the chart.
- Mahad14
- Mahaad7
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Mahad 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 Waseem test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mahad's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Waseem climbed just as high around 1987, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Waseem's path sketches the road Mahad is walking now.
Mahad 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
Mahad beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mahad in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single positive word in everyday use in the language.
- It is short and made only of sounds English already has.
- The spelling is phonetic and stable across Somali usage.
- English speakers tend to drop the middle h.
- It is close to Mohamed, Mahdi and Muhammad and will be misheard.
- It is rare in the United States and will be spelled out routinely.
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Mahad
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mahads are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Mahad are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Mahad?
- Mahad is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 21 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Mahaad.
- How popular is the name Mahad in 2025?
- Mahad ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mahad?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Mahad — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mahad with classmates?
- Mahad will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mahad
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mahad? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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