During my school years, I recall that there were usually two or three other students named Ali Hosseini in the same grade. For at least two years, three of us shared the same classroom in the beginning of the school year, leading the school administration to reassign each of us to different classes to reduce confusion.
This pattern continued. In university, in emails, in conference lists, and even in interviews, I frequently encountered the question:
“Which Ali Hosseini?” A while ago, I had an interview outside Iran, where the interviewer said that she had had an interview with another Ali Hosseini, PMP.
Eventually, I decided to look into it.
- The given name “Ali” is held by over 2.2 million people in Iran. (global numbers are higher)
- The surname “Hosseini” is held by more than 700,000 individuals in Iran. (global numbers are higher)
- The combination “Ali Hosseini” is shared by an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people in Iran alone.
- This doesn’t include highly common compound first names like Amir Ali, Ali Reza, or Mohammad Ali, combined with the surname Hosseini.
- Nor does it include surname variations such as Hosseinian, Mirhosseini, Seyyed Hosseini, or Hosseini-Far, which are prevalent across different regions and lineages.
When combining all variants, compound first names involving Ali and surname variations derived from Hosseini, the number of individuals who are called Ali Hosseini with or without variations likely exceeds 350,000 to 400,000 globally.
According to publicly available records, over 30 individuals in the United States alone are registered with the exact name “Ali Hosseini.” According to the PMI, looks like there are at least 4 “Ali Hosseini, PMP”s globally. Also there are more than a dozen “Ali Hosseini”s in my research field. This is not counting those who have shortened, anglicized, or altered their names, which is very common among immigrants.
Altogether, the exact name and surname “Ali Hosseini” is shared by at least 70,000 people globally (considering 60 to 65 thousand in Iran and 5 to 10 thousand internationally), and hundreds of thousands more share close or compound versions.
These are just numbers, I like the name.