How popular is the baby name Omar in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Omar.

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Popularity of the baby name Omar


Posts that mention the name Omar

Popular baby names in Israel, 2015

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

According to data released earlier this week by Israel’s Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), the top three most popular baby names in the country overall in 2015 were:

  1. Mohammed
  2. Yosef (used for male babies — both Muslim and Jewish)
  3. Ariel (used for Jewish babies — both male and female)

The top baby names for Jewish babies specifically were Noa and Noam:

Girl names (Jewish)

1. Noa
2. Tamar
3. Maya
4. Avigayil/Avigail/Abigail
5. Talya/Talia
6. Adele
7. Shira
8. Ayala/Ayela
9. Yael
10. Sarah/Sara

Boy names (Jewish)

1. Noam
2. David
3. Ori/Uri
4. Ariel
5. Eitan
6. Yosef
7. Itai/Itay
8. Yonatan
9. Daniel
10. Moshe

The CBS also reported that the boy names Dror, Yagel/Yigal, and Alroi/Elroi/Elroy each saw a sharp rise in usage in 2015.

The top baby names for Muslim babies specifically were Maryam and Mohammad:

Girl names (Muslim)

1. Maryam/Miryam/Mariam
2. Sha’im
3. Jana/Janah
4. Lin
5. Lian/Layan
6. Alin/Aline
7. Sa’ara

Boy names (Muslim)

1. Mohammad
2. Ahmed
3. Yosef
4. Omar
5. Adam
6. Jud/Jod
7. Abed
8. Ali
9. Amir
10. Ibrahim

The 2012 rankings for Israel are pretty similar.

Update, Oct. 2017: Here’s an interesting fact about Israel’s 2014 rankings (which I never wrote a post about): “Eitan soared in popularity to No. 5 from 10th place in 2014, a surge attributed to that year’s war in Gaza dubbed Operation Protective Edge, or Mivtza Tzuk Eitan in Hebrew.” (Source: Times of Israel)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

What influenced the baby name Ovadia in Israel?

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (1920-2013)
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the name Ovadia has become trendy in the Middle Eastern country.

Only 36 baby boys in Israel were named Ovadia in 2012. “However, following the death of spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in 2013, 117 babies were given this name and in 2014, 209 newborns were named after the rabbi.”

Influential cleric Ovadia Yosef, who founded the ultra-Orthodox Shas party in the mid-1980s, died in October of 2013 at the age of 93.

The baby name Ovadia — the Hebrew form of Obadiah — also saw a modest increase in usage in the United States during the same time frame:

  • 2015: 9 baby boys named Ovadia
  • 2014: 15 baby boys named Ovadia (6 born in NY)
  • 2013: 11 baby boys named Ovadia (9 born in NY)
  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: 5 baby boys named Ovadia (all born in NY)

Despite its trendiness, Ovadia wasn’t popular enough to rank among the top Jewish boy names in Israel in 2014:

Top boy names among JewsTop boy names among Muslims
Noam
Ori/Uri
David
Yosef
Eitan
Itay
Ariel
Daniel
Yonatan
Moshe		Muhammad
Yousef
Omar
Abed
Adam
Ali
Ibrahim
Mahmoud
Amir
Haled

And here are Israel’s top girl names:

Top girl names among JewsTop girl names among Muslims
Noa
Tamar
Shira
Maya
Yael
Adele
Talia
Avigail
Ayala
Sara		Miryam
Jana
Lian
Malak
Aline
Lyn
Nur

Of the 176,427 babies born in Israel in 2014, 136,000 (77.1%) were born into Jewish families and 40,427 (22.9%) were born into Arabic families.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Nomination of the New Chief Rabbis by Dan Hadani collection/National Library of Israel/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection under CC BY 4.0.

[Latest update: Nov. 2024]

Name news from Saudi Arabia

Three bits of name news out of Saudi Arabia…

First:

The most circulated [baby] names in the Kingdom include Mohammad, Fahd, Abdullah, Abdulrahman, Turki, Bandar, Omar, Ali, Fatima, Aisha, Nora, Hessa, Sheikha, and Maha.

Unfortunately the article didn’t specify exactly which year (or years) this list covers.

Second:

Unusual or rare [baby] names have been reduced due to the work of authorities across the Kingdom who have enacted regulations to curb exotic or strange names.

Some of the baby names no longer being used are…

  • Faziah, female name meaning “one who is afraid”
  • Mureibah, female name, “fearful”
  • Najar, male name
  • Rashash, male name, “a gun machine”
  • Zaqam, male name meaning “to do with the mouth” (…?)

Third:

Saudi society is facing a new phenomenon in which many young people are changing their names to be in tune with the latest name trends, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

Several of the name changes mentioned in the article:

  • Fatimah to Hadeel (woman, 22 years old)
    • “I used the name Hadeel for my social media account before I changed it officially with the Civil Status Department.”
  • Salem to Faris (man, 27 years old)
  • Ethar to Maria (woman, 31 years old)
  • Nouf to Naifah (woman, age not mentioned)

Sources:

Popular names in Dubai: Mohammed, Mariam

Flag of the United Arab Emirates
Flag of the United Arab Emirates

Here are two recent sets of name rankings out of the United Arab Emirates.

First: In mid-2013, the UAE’s Ministry of Health released “year to date” baby name rankings topped by Mariam/Fatima and Mohammed:

Girl Names (babies in UAE, 2013)

  1. Mariam (tie)
  2. Fatima (tie)
  3. Aiysha
  4. Sara

Boy Names (babies in UAE, 2013)

  1. Mohammed
  2. Abdullah
  3. Ahmed
  4. Ali
  5. Khalid
  6. Saeed
  7. Omar
  8. Rashid

Second: Earlier this month, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) of Dubai — one of the 7 emirates in the UAE — released lists of popular girl names and boy names according to a survey of school registration records. I’m not sure what age range the records covered, but these rankings were also topped by Maryam and Mohammed:

Girl Names (children in Dubai, 2015)

  1. Maryam
  2. Sara/Sarah
  3. Fatima/Fatma
  4. Ayesha
  5. Noor

Boy Names (children in Dubai, 2015)

  1. Mohammed
  2. Ali
  3. Omar
  4. Ahmed/Ahmad
  5. Abdulla/Abdullah

One Dubai student named Mohammed was quoted as saying, “It is common to see four or five students share Mohammed as their first name in a class of 25 to 30 students. We usually get called by our second name.”

(I wonder where Hamad fell on these lists…?)

Sources: Mohammed most popular name for boys, The baby names that Dubai happens to loves the most

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Arab Emirates (public domain)