Humanverse

Jamal vs Jameshia

American parents have registered 33,501 Jamals since 1880, against 725 Jameshias. Jamal is still ahead, with 169 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Jamal against Jameshia, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Jamal Jameshia

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Jamal has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1946 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1998, when Jamal had 689 and Jameshia had 40.

Side by side

  Jamal Jameshia
Total US births 33,501725
Most in one year 1,25347
Babies in 2025 169under 5
Estimated living today 32,000710
Median age today 3230
Peak year 19931993
Best rank 233rd boys2,600th girls
Rank in 2025 1,196thunranked
First recorded 19461980
Girls / boys 266 / 33,235725 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Jamals alive today are over 32; half the Jameshias are over 30. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Jamal and Jameshia.