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Kemal

#13,003 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Kamal

Kemal has been given to 373 babies in the U.S. since 1965. In 2025 it ranked #13,003 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2023, with 15 recorded.

Babies named Kemal, 2025

1 in 663,000

Kemal over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kemal: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Kamal

Arabic

What Kemal means

Kemal is a form of Kamal.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Kemal is used in Turkish.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ce.ˈmaɫ/ for Kemal.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Kemal → Kamal. The family’s meaning is “perfection”, recorded in English with the source elements kamāl.

Origin, language, and formation

Kemal is used in English and Turkish. Its origins include Arabic.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Kamal.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Turkish, Kemal is pronounced /ceˈmal/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 373 boys were recorded with the name Kemal between 1965 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 15 in 2023; its best national rank was #4,006 in 1981.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #8,408 in 2020 to #13,003 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #8,392 in 2015 to #13,003 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Kemal?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#13,003
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kemal sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kemal. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kemals were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kemal was born before 2006 — so the typical Kemal is around 19 today.

Median birth year
2006
About 19 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
24.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
63.3%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
373
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 24.9% of all recorded uses (93).

Is Kemal rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,584
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−4,595
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−4,611
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.56×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
33.3%
Peak was 2023 (15)
Years since peak
2
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#4,006
1981

Spellings of Kemal

Kemal is not the most common spelling — Neal is, with 30.9% against Kemal's 0.21%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Kemal is used

Across 1910–2025, Kemal was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,664,768 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Kemal has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kemal around the world

Where Kemal ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #3,684
    in 2025
  • France
    1953–2025
    #1,549
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2009–2020
    #2,945
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1968–2004
    #589
    in 2004

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Kemal by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#13,003
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 4,595
Best rank ever
#4,006
1981
Peak year
2023
15 that year
First recorded
1965
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
373
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Kemal

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KemonKemarKemetKemoniKemaniKemuelKemauriGamalKemptonAmalKempKemariKemperKemondKemonteMalErmalKemarionKemKamalJemalJammalRamalJarmal

Sibling names for Kemal

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Kemal

Top names of 2023, Kemal's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 1981Boys' names starting with KTurkish Boy Names