Umar
Masculine · Arabic roots · “long-lived”
Five letters, two beats, and thirteen centuries of continuous use behind them. Umar has been spoken in Arabic since the seventh century and carried out from there into Turkish as Ömer, into Bosnian, Hausa, Urdu, Malay and Swahili, and into English most often through the spelling Omar. Few names this short have traveled that far without changing shape.
How old is the name Umar?
Umar first appears in US birth records in 1951 — 74 years ago. The typical Umar is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,100 people named Umar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Umar most popular?
Umar peaked in 2025, reaching #1159 nationally. Today it ranks #1159, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Umar appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From ʿUmar (Arabic) to Umar
The story of Umar
Umar is Arabic, built on the root ʿ-m-r, and it was already in use in Arabia before Islam. Its most consequential bearer was Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, who ruled in the 630s and 640s; his standing carried the name to every place Arabic went. It settled into Persian and Turkish, into Urdu and Hausa and Malay, each language keeping the consonants and adjusting only the vowels — Ömer in Turkey, Omer in the Balkans, Umaru in parts of West Africa. In the United States it arrived with families from those same regions and has been growing steadily, with the strongest concentrations in New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Meaning
long-lived, flourishing
From the Arabic root ʿ-m-r, which carries ideas of life and thriving habitation — the same root behind ʿumr, a lifespan, and maʿmūr, inhabited or well-populated.
How the name formed
- ʿUmarArabic
- Umar
- Omar
- Ömer
Related forms: عمر · Omar · Ömer · Omer · Umaru · عُمر (Umar)
Pronouncing Umar
OO-mar
In Arabic the first sound is the letter ʿayn, which English has no equivalent for; English speakers land on OO-mar or oo-MAR, and both are widely accepted. The spelling Omar is more often said OH-mar in the US, which is the main source of mix-ups.
Nicknames for Umar
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
- 1951
- Most boys named
- 2025180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1159reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +0.6%180 in 2025, from 179
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.
Umar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عمر in Arabic — same name
- Omar in English — spelling variant
- Ömer in Turkish — same name
- Omer in Bosnian — same name
- Umaru in Hausa — related form
- عُمر (Umar) in Urdu — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania.
Umars among us
people named Umar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,489 born in 2025 was named Umar
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 Kejuan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Umar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kejuan climbed just as high around 2003, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kejuan's path sketches the road Umar is walking now.
Umar is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Umar is headed
Umar looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Umar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Umar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Short, phonetic and spelled the same way in every language that uses the Latin alphabet — no silent letters, no ambiguity about syllable count.
- Recognizable almost anywhere: Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Bosnian, Hausa, Malay and Swahili speakers all know it on sight.
- Thirteen centuries of unbroken documented use, which is longer than most names in the American top hundred can claim.
- The near-twin Omar is already familiar to English speakers, so Umar rarely needs explaining from scratch.
- Omar is the far more common English spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections — on forms, in email, at the doctor's desk. The two are the same name, which makes the mix-up easy and mostly harmless.
- The vowel shifts between languages. Arabic and Urdu speakers will say it one way, American teachers another. Most families settle on one pronunciation early and let the rest go.
- Within Muslim communities the name is closely tied to the second caliph, and for that reason it is used much less in Shia families than in Sunni ones. Worth knowing if your wider family spans both.
- A child named Umar will likely be the only one in the school. That means no surname initial after it — and also that the name gets no help from familiarity in a roll call.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Umar 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 Umar? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Umar
Masculine · Arabic roots · #1159 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Umars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Umar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Umar in 2025?
- Umar ranks #1159 among US boy names in 2025, with 180 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Umar?
- About 1 in every 9,489 US boys born in 2025 was named Umar — 180 in all.
- Will my child share the name Umar with classmates?
- Umar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Umar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kalel#1159 · Kasey#1159 · Adrien#1159 · Rogelio#1159 · Booker#1159 · Gianluca#1156 · Yasir#1156 · Osman#1156
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Umar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Umar 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