Ahmed

What Ahmed means

Variant of Ahmad, meaning “praiseworthy”

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

Source: Wiktionary, “Ahmed” (revision 94534350) and “Ahmad” (revision 92544304), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Ahmed?

US: Falling: down from #496 in 2015. England & Wales: Steady: #183 in 2015, #168 now.

Biggest US share so far: 2015, when 590 boys got the name (#496 that year). First in the US records in 1929.

How common

• About 1 in 4,471 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 906 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 1,403 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 MN (1.18 per 1,000 boys), NY (0.78 per 1,000 boys), MD (0.61 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

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

US vs UK

Ahmed is #703 in the US and #168 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 Ahmed 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

• Ahmad407 US · 229 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 Ahmed

Boys

• Mohamed#527Variant of Muhammad, meaning “praised, commendable, laudable”^*
• Abdullah#763“servant of God”^*
• Nasir#486Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #486 vs #2,133 in 2025
• Hamza#541“lion”^*
• Yousef#744Editor’s note Up from #788 in 2015 to #744 in 2025 in the US
• Ameer#980Editor’s note First shows up in US records in 1969, with 14 babies

For a sister

• Aleah#965Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #444 in 2015, #965 in 2025
• Lylah#584Editor’s note Up from #629 in 2015 to #584 in 2025 in the US
• Aliyah#263“ascent”^*
• Sariyah#624“a cloud that comes by night”^*
• Layla#36Editor’s note Down from #30 in 2015 to #36 in 2025 in the US
• Laila#413“night”^*

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