Given name & surname
Bilal
Bilal is a masculine given name from Arabic. It is used in English, Albanian, and Azerbaijani.
Original ArabicBillal
Meaning & origin
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1964. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Bilal through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 5,863
- 5,858 boys · 5 girls
- Most popular year
- 2018
- 195 babies
- 2025
- 167
- #1,212 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +2%
- Steady
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 167 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 1,212 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 2.1% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 195 in 2018. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for boys with this name (22). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 6,544 as a first name in 2020; 2,440 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Bilal’s family of names
In English usage, Bilal has a diminutive in Bill. In Arabic usage, Bilal has a recorded connection with BILLAL. Bilal is a Roman-alphabet rendering of Билал.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Bilal has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Arabic roots to each of them.
Arabicwhere Bilal comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 4
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Bilal
- Bilal ibn Rabahcompanion of Muhammad and first Islamic mu'azzin (c.580–640)581–641
- Bilal HassaniFrench-Moroccan singer, songwriter and vloggerborn 1999
- Bilal El KhannoussMoroccan association football playerborn 2004
- Bilal PhilipsCanadian Muslim scholar and Salafist (born 1947)
- Bilal Ag AcherifAmazigh (Tuareg) nationalist leaderborn 1977
- Bilal CoulibalyFrench basketball player (born 2004)
- Bilal BaşacıkoğluTurkish association football player (born 1995)
- Bilal ErdoğanTurkish businessman and politician (b. 1981)
- Bilal BoutobbaFrench and Algerian footballerborn 1998
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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