Amiah
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "truth" or "trusted by God".
Name Census estimates that about 4,633 living Americans carry the first name Amiah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Amiah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amiah births was 2008 (275 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amiah. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Amiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Amiah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.6K
~ 1 in 73,981 Americans
Peak year
2008
275 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,671
Tracked since 1993
Census
Amiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,170 people with the first name Amiah, which placed it at #5,433 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,433
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
38.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amiah is Black at 38.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.7%) and White (20.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Amiah described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Amiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American38.0% · 1,205
- Hispanic or Latino21.7% · 688
- White20.9% · 663
- Two or more races16.9% · 537
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 55
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 22
Popularity
Amiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amiah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,097 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Amiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amiah by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Amiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Amiah, while West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 86 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amiah
The name Amiah is a relatively modern name, with its origins and meaning still being debated. Some believe it to be a variation of the Hebrew name Amiah, which means "strength of the Lord" or "God is truth." Others suggest it may be a combination of the Hebrew name Ami, meaning "my people," and the suffix "-ah," which is often used in Hebrew names to denote femininity.
Despite its uncertain origins, the name Amiah has been recorded in historical records and texts, though its usage has been relatively rare until recent times. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the 18th century, when an Amiah Browning was listed in the parish records of St. Michael's Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1765.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals who have borne the name Amiah. In the 19th century, Amiah Heaton (1799-1873) was an American Baptist minister and abolitionist who was involved in the Underground Railroad, helping to facilitate the escape of enslaved people from the Southern United States.
Another notable Amiah was Amiah Whittier (1819-1892), an American writer and poet who was a cousin of the famous poet John Greenleaf Whittier. She published several works of poetry and prose, including the book "Leaves from the Heart" in 1856.
In the 20th century, Amiah Fogarty (1905-1987) was an Irish actress and singer who performed on stage and in films, including the 1937 movie "The Great O'Malley." She was known for her powerful soprano voice and her performances in operatic roles.
More recently, Amiah Miller (born 2001) is an American actress who has appeared in several television shows and films, including the Netflix series "The Haunting of Hill House" and the movie "War for the Planet of the Apes" in 2017.
While the name Amiah has been used throughout history, it has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries, likely due to its unique sound and the growing trend of giving children more distinctive and uncommon names.
People
Amiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Amiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,633 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amiah going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 73,981 US residents.
Is Amiah a common name?
We classify Amiah as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Amiah was 2008, when 275 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amiah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,170 people with the name Amiah, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,433 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Amiah in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Amiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amiah appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,174 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Amiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amiah is Black at 38.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.7%) and White (20.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Amiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Amiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.0% (1,205 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Amiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amiah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Amiah in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Amiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amiah in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Amiah can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Amiah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.