Ahmad

What Ahmad means

Means “praiseworthy”

Borrowed from Arabic أَحْمَد (ʔaḥmad), elative of حَمِيد (ḥamīd, “praiseworthy”); or from Persian اَحْمَد (ahmad).

Source: Wiktionary, “Ahmad” (revision 92544304), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Ahmad?

US: Falling: down from #565 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #264 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 2001, when 662 boys got the name (#386 that year). First in the US records in 1950.

How common

• About 1 in 4,197 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,187 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 1,964 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in IL (0.63 per 1,000 boys), LA (0.63 per 1,000 boys), MI (0.62 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Ahmad is #669 in the US and #218 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Ahmad were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Ahmed382 US · 300 E&W
• Emad42 US · 12 E&W
• Imad20 US · 9 E&W
• Ahmet10 US · 16 E&W
• Amed0 US · 7 E&W
• Amad0 US · 6 E&W

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

If you like Ahmad

Boys

• Nasir#486Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #486 vs #2,133 in 2025
• Mohamed#527Variant of Muhammad, meaning “praised, commendable, laudable”^*
• Mohammed#595Variant of Muhammad, meaning “praised, commendable, laudable”^*
• Hamza#541“lion”^*
• Abdullah#763“servant of God”^*
• Yousef#744Editor’s note Up from #788 in 2015 to #744 in 2025 in the US

For a sister

• Kira#385Editor’s note Down from #361 in 2015 to #385 in 2025 in the US
• Aliyah#263“ascent”^*
• Fatima#330Spanish and Portuguese, meaning “abstainer”^*
• Aaliyah#101Editor’s note First shows up in US records in 1976, with 18 babies
• Aleah#965Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #444 in 2015, #965 in 2025
• Sariyah#624“a cloud that comes by night”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Arabic, Persian, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Ahmad’s. Rank is US 2025.