Aminah
A feminine given name of Arabic origin meaning "faithful" or "trustworthy".
Name Census estimates that about 5,242 living Americans carry the first name Aminah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aminah today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aminah births was 2017 (306 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aminah. 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 Aminah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Aminah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.2K
~ 1 in 65,386 Americans
Peak year
2017
306 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,004
Tracked since 1965
Census
Aminah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,580 people with the first name Aminah, which placed it at #4,965 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
#4,965
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,580 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
56.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aminah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aminah is Black at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%) and Hispanic (11.2%). 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 Aminah 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 Aminah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American56.4% · 2,019
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.4% · 445
- Hispanic or Latino11.2% · 401
- White10.9% · 389
- Two or more races8.6% · 307
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 19
Popularity
Aminah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aminah from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,109 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aminah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aminah 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 Aminah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aminahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Aminah, while Kentucky, Connecticut, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 135 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aminah
The name Aminah has Arabic origins, derived from the Semitic root word 'amn' meaning faithfulness, trustworthiness, and security. It is a feminine name that gained widespread recognition and significance within the Islamic tradition.
Aminah was the name of the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, revered as a woman of exceptional character and virtue in Islamic history. She is mentioned in various Islamic texts and is highly respected for her role in raising the Prophet Muhammad. Her full name, Aminah bint Wahb, is recorded in historical sources such as the Sirah (biographies of the Prophet).
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Aminah was Aminah bint Muhammad al-Mu'tasim, a princess of the Abbasid Caliphate who lived in the 9th century CE. She was the daughter of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim and is known for her involvement in the political affairs of the caliphate during that time.
In the 12th century CE, Aminah bint al-Zubair was a prominent female scholar and writer from Mosul, Iraq. She is recognized for her contributions to Islamic literature, particularly her work on hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
Another notable figure with the name Aminah was Aminah Assilmi, a renowned 15th-century Moroccan scholar and Sufi mystic. She was highly respected for her knowledge of Islamic sciences and her spiritual teachings, which influenced the Sufi tradition in North Africa.
In more recent times, Aminah Barakaten (1838-1886) was a famous 19th-century Egyptian singer and composer. She is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern Arabic music and is celebrated for her contribution to the development of the Egyptian musical genre known as the "Qadim" style.
These are just a few examples of individuals with the name Aminah throughout history, showcasing its timeless presence and significance across various cultures and disciplines within the Islamic tradition and beyond.
People
Aminah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aminah 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
Aminah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aminah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,242 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aminah 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 65,386 US residents.
Is Aminah a common name?
We classify Aminah as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,335 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aminah most popular?
The single biggest year for Aminah was 2017, when 306 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aminah is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aminah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,580 people with the name Aminah, or 1.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,965 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 Aminah 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 Aminah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aminah appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,585 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Aminah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aminah is Black at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (12.4%) and Hispanic (11.2%). 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 Aminah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Aminah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.4% (2,019 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 Aminah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aminah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aminah 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 Aminah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aminah 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 Aminah 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 many people are named Aminah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.