Humanverse

Jamal vs Jamye

American parents have registered 33,501 Jamals since 1880, against 847 Jamyes. Jamal is still ahead, with 169 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Jamal Jamye

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

Of the 78 years in which either name was published, Jamal for 74 years and Jamye for 4 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Jamal Jamye
Total US births 33,501847
Most in one year 1,25339
Babies in 2025 169under 5
Estimated living today 32,000790
Median age today 3245
Peak year 19931976
Best rank 233rd boys2,174th girls
Rank in 2025 1,196thunranked
First recorded 19461947
Girls / boys 266 / 33,235835 / 12

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 Jamyes alive today are over 45; half the Jamals are over 32. That is 13 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 Jamye.