Names of Djibouti DJ
The names that most distinguish Djibouti from the rest of the world are Houssein and Fatouma.
Written in Arabic, French, Somali, aa.
- Population
- 922K
- Official registers
- 6
- Name forms recorded
- 55
At least one official register, plus a written account of the naming system.
How names work in Djibouti
4 naming traditions are in use in Djibouti, listed in the order of the country's languages. They are separate systems, not variants of one, and each has its own page.
The most common names in Djibouti
Characteristic of Djibouti
Not the most common names — the most distinctive ones. A name appears here when Djibouti holds a larger share of its bearers than the world does, weighted by how much of the country's whole name distribution it accounts for.
Scripts & spelling
Names in Djibouti are written in Latin (97%) and Cyrillic (2%), measured over the spellings our corpus records for this country.
Countries whose names look alike
Measured as the overlap between each country's top 300 given-name forms, weighted by how common each is — the fuzzy-set approach of Lauc (2024), on a truncated inventory.
Registers & sources
Official registers
- Journal Officiel — Decret 2023-028, listes des candidats (legislatives 2023)2023not a population count
Journal Officiel de Djibouti (Secretariat General du Gouvernement). Counts: election candidates. given and surname. 109 forms. 2023. Licence: Open government data.
What we know about this register
Decret 2023-028 legislative candidates (titulaires+suppleants) for 24 Feb 2023, parsed from HTML decree tables; 206 candidates -> 210 name rows (109 given, 101 surname); GIVEN-first patronymic order; no sex column.
Last verified 2026-07-02.
- Statistiques inscriptions de prénoms à Djibouti par Etudiants du Monde.2023not a population count
studentsoftheworld.info. Counts: not recorded. given. 12 forms. 2023. Licence: unknown.
What we know about this register
Auto-discovered via Firecrawl. Statistiques inscriptions de prénoms à Djibouti par Etudiants du Monde.
Last verified 2026-05-11.
- This page provides a list of the most popular names in Djibouti, published by Les Prénom.2023not a population count
lesprenoms.eu. Counts: not recorded. given. 10 forms. 2023. Licence: unknown.
What we know about this register
Auto-discovered via Firecrawl. This page provides a list of the most popular names in Djibouti, published by Les Prénom.
Last verified 2026-05-11.
- This page presents a list of common family names in Djibouti, illustrating the richness of Djiboutian identity, publishe2026not a population count
nomsdefamille.net. Counts: not recorded. surname. 10 forms. 2026. Licence: unknown.
What we know about this register
Auto-discovered via Firecrawl. This page presents a list of common family names in Djibouti, illustrating the richness of Djiboutian identity, published by the National Institute of Statistics of Djibouti.
Last verified 2026-05-11.
- This page on Geneanet provides a list of the most common surnames in Djibouti.2023not a population count
www.geneanet.org. Counts: not recorded. surname. 4 forms. 2023. Licence: unknown.
What we know about this register
Auto-discovered via Firecrawl. This page on Geneanet provides a list of the most common surnames in Djibouti.
Last verified 2026-05-11.
- This page discusses notable figures from the Somali Revolutionary Council, published by BBC Somali.2016not a population count
www.bbc.com. Counts: not recorded. given. 3 forms. 1991–2016. Licence: unknown.
What we know about this register
Auto-discovered via Firecrawl. BBC Somali article about Somali Revolutionary Council political figures; 5-row parquet contains Somali politician full names (Maxamed Siyaad Bare, Maxamed Cali Samatar, Xuseen Kulmiye Afrax) — named individuals, not Djibouti baby name frequency data.
Last verified 2026-05-12.
Cited works
Behind this page's own account — its one-line answer, its explanation of why the rankings differ, and the notes on its registers. Each naming tradition cites its own sources on its page. Not yet checked against onomastic literature.
- Arab Naming Conventionspaper
- Afar peopleencyclopaedia
- Arabic nameencyclopaedia
- Category:Afar given namesencyclopaedia
- Cultural Atlasweb
- Ethiopia Naming Customsgenealogy
- FamilySearchgenealogy
- FamilySearchgenealogy
- How Arabic Names Work: A Guide to Ism, Nasab, Laqab, Nisba, and Kunyaweb
- Iraqiweb
- Naming Conventions throughout the Arab Worldweb
- People Groups: the Afar of Djiboutiweb
- Understanding Arabic Naming Conventionsweb
- WardheerNewsweb
- Wikipediaencyclopaedia
About this data
Official figures are reproduced from the register named beside them, at the year named beside them, and are never combined across registers. The "across all records" ranking counts records in our own corpus — historical registers, the diaspora, business and place records — and is not a population count. Bearer estimates are omitted where a name accounts for more than a quarter of a country's records, because the estimate is not defensible there. Names listed by reference works and licensed name dictionaries are cited as attesting a name; their figures are not published.
Data snapshot: 2026-09-12.
Questions
- Is there one naming system in Djibouti?
- No — 4 are described on this page (Somali, Afar, Arabic, French), and they are separate systems rather than variants of one.
Cite this page: Mondonomo, “Names of Djibouti”, https://nelma.mondonomo.ai/names/DJ (data snapshot 2026-09-12).