Given name & surname
Jamal
“a handsome man”
Jamal is used as a given name and a surname. One Arabic interpretation is “a handsome man.”
Original Arabicجَمَال
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Arabic interpretation is “a handsome man.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Arabic.
How it developed
From Arabic جَمَال (“beauty”); its root is Arabic ج م ل.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1946. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Jamal through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 33,501
- 33,235 boys · 266 girls
- Most popular year
- 1993
- 1,253 babies
- 2025
- 169
- #1,197 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −30%
- Easing
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 169 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 1,197 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 30.4% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for boys was 1,245 in 1993. In 2025, Florida had the largest reported state-level birth count for boys with this name (18). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 29,768 as a first name in 2020; 3,084 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.
Jamal’s family of names
Jamal has a related form in Jamel. Jamal has a related form in Jamil. Jamal has a related form in Jamaal.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Jamal has relatives in 13 languages. Lines run from its Arabic roots to each of them.
Arabicwhere Jamal comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 23
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 5
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 13
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- جَمَالArabic
- Jamarrelated form
- Yamalequivalent
- Jamaequivalent
- CemalTurkish
- Džemalequivalent
- Xhemalequivalent
- จามาลThai
Show 5 moreShow fewer
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Jamal
- Gamal Abdel NasserPresident of Egypt from 1956 to 19701918–1970
- Jamal KhashoggiSaudi journalist (1958–2018)
- Jamal MusialaGerman footballer (born 2003)
- Jamal al-Din al-AfghaniPolitical activist and Islamic ideologist (1838–1897)
- Abu Mahdi al-MuhandisIraqi politician and Army commander (1954-2020)
- Jamal MurrayCanadian basketball player (born 1997)
- Jamal BlackmanEnglish association football player (born 1993)
- Djamel SedjatiAlgerian athleteborn 1999
- Jamal SellamiMoroccan association football player and coachborn 1970
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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