Yamila
Feminine · “beautiful”
Yamila is the Spanish-language spelling of Jamila, the Arabic word for beautiful — and the root behind it is about camels.
How old is the name Yamila?
Yamila first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Yamila is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Yamila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Yamila most popular?
Yamila peaked in 2017, reaching #1625 nationally. Today it ranks #4265, 2,640 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From jamil to Yamila
The story of Yamila
The connection between beauty and camels is not a joke: classical Arabic poetry describes women by comparison to she-camels at length and admiringly, and the vocabulary of praise is built on the animal that made desert life possible. Jamila spread with Arabic across North Africa and into Spain. Spanish-language naming writes it Yamila, since Spanish j is a throat sound. It appears in American records with Argentine and Cuban families.
Meaning
beautiful, graceful
From Arabic jamil, beautiful; the root j-m-l also gives jamal, a camel, and the standard explanation is that a fine camel was the measure of beauty in the poetry of pre-Islamic Arabia.
How the name formed
- jamil
- Jamila
- Yamila
Related forms: Jamila · Yamila · Cemile
Pronouncing Yamila
yah-MEE-lah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Every letter is sounded in Spanish.
Nicknames for Yamila
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 2017133 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1625reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%33 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.
Yamila in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Jamila in Arabic — spelling variant
- Yamila in Spanish — same name
- Cemile in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Yamilas among us
people named Yamila are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was named Yamila
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 Lakin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Yamila's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lakin climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lakin's path sketches the road Yamila is walking now.
Yamila 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 Yamila is headed
Yamila should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Yamila beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Yamila 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 with a genuinely surprising root behind it.
- Mila is a complete short form in very current use.
- Every letter is said, so Spanish speakers read it correctly at once.
- Jamila is the standard Arabic transliteration and looks quite different.
- The Y is a Spanish convention for the Arabic j sound.
- A name meaning beautiful sets an expectation the child did not choose.
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What they receive
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Yamila
Feminine · #4265 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Yamilas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Yamila are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Yamila in 2025?
- Yamila ranks #4265 among US girl names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Yamila?
- About 1 in every 48,705 US girls born in 2025 was named Yamila — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Yamila with classmates?
- Yamila will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Yamila
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hyacinth#4265 · Halina#4265 · Michal#4265 · Sadia#4265 · Zahava#4265 · Maiah#4265 · Daysi#4265 · Corrie#4265
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Yamila? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Yamila and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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