# Ahmad (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/ahmad/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Meaning | “praiseworthy” |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɑː.mæd/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Ahmed, Ahmaud |
| US babies named this | 20,366 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 20,348 / 18 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 4,150, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

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

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 6 | 8,452 |
| 1978 | 6 | 8,571 |
| 1979 | 6 | 9,021 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 426 | 588 |
| 2012 | 444 | 579 |
| 2013 | 458 | 569 |
| 2014 | 490 | 567 |
| 2015 | 498 | 565 |
| 2016 | 466 | 588 |
| 2017 | 481 | 564 |
| 2018 | 502 | 552 |
| 2019 | 454 | 602 |
| 2020 | 429 | 625 |
| 2021 | 385 | 689 |
| 2022 | 437 | 634 |
| 2023 | 393 | 685 |
| 2024 | 411 | 668 |
| 2025 | 407 | 669 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 140 | 317 |
| 2012 | 141 | 319 |
| 2013 | 168 | 277 |
| 2014 | 169 | 280 |
| 2015 | 194 | 264 |
| 2016 | 193 | 272 |
| 2017 | 159 | 314 |
| 2018 | 166 | 293 |
| 2019 | 170 | 285 |
| 2020 | 157 | 292 |
| 2021 | 186 | 256 |
| 2022 | 188 | 250 |
| 2023 | 174 | 263 |
| 2024 | 217 | 228 |
| 2025 | 229 | 218 |

## People named Ahmad

- Ahmad ibn Fadlan, 10th-century Arab traveller and ethnographer
- Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī, Abbasid astronomer (c. 800 – 870)
- Ahmad Shah Bahadur, 13th Mughal Emperor from 1748 to 1754
- Ahmad Massoud, Afghan politician and military leader (born 1989)
- Ahmad Jamal, American jazz pianist (1930-2023)
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, 16th century Somali Imam and General of the Adal Sultanate
- Ahmad Lahori, 17th century Mughal chief architect
- Ahmad Zahir, Afghan singer (1946-1979)
- Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tahawi, Egyptian Islamic jurist and theologian (853–933)
- Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsa'i, Founder of Shaykhí school of Twelver Shiism (1753–1826)
- Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani, Emir of Qatar
- Ahmad ibn Arabshah, Arab writer

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.