Amira
A feminine Arabic name meaning "princess" or "nobility".
Name Census estimates that about 23,152 living Americans carry the first name Amira. It sits at #136 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Amira today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amira births was 2024 (2,181 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amira. 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 Amira with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Amira is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 14,805 Americans
Peak year
2024
2,181 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#136
Tracked since 1963
Census
Amira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 16,501 people with the first name Amira, which placed it at #1,796 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
#1,796
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
16,501 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amira is White at 35.7%. The next largest groups are Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (14.6%). 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 Amira 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 Amira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.7% · 5,885
- Black or African American34.5% · 5,690
- Hispanic or Latino14.6% · 2,415
- Two or more races9.5% · 1,565
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 827
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 119
Gender
Gender distribution for Amira
Out of the 23,434 babies given the name Amira since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Amira as a male name
- Ranked #12,412 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (5 births)
Amira as a female name
- Ranked #136 in 2024
- 2,176 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (2,176 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amira appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,499 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Amira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amira 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 8,197 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amira 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 Amira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amiras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Amira, while Montana, Maine, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 460 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amira
The name Amira is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "amir" meaning "prince" or "ruler." It is a feminine form of the masculine name Amir, which has been in use since ancient times in the Arab world.
The earliest known reference to the name Amira can be traced back to the 7th century, during the Islamic Golden Age. At that time, it was commonly used as a title for princesses or daughters of rulers in the Arab world.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Amira is Amira bint Abd al-Rahman, who lived in the 8th century and was the daughter of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Rahman I. She is known for her poetry and her involvement in the intellectual circles of the time.
Another notable figure in history with the name Amira is Amira Bint Ali Al-Jamal, a 12th-century Arab poet and scholar from modern-day Iraq. She was renowned for her contributions to literature and her expertise in various fields, including mathematics and astronomy.
In the 13th century, Amira Fatima bint Yahya Al-Fayrouz, a Syrian scholar and poet, gained prominence for her literary works and her involvement in the cultural life of Damascus.
Moving forward in time, Amira Bashir, born in 1910 in Egypt, was a pioneering feminist and activist who fought for women's rights and education in the Middle East.
Amira Hass, born in 1956, is an Israeli journalist and author known for her coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and her advocacy for human rights.
While the name Amira has its roots in the Arab world, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions over the centuries. Its meaning of "princess" or "ruler" has contributed to its appeal, as it evokes a sense of strength, power, and nobility.
People
Amira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amira 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
Amira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 23,152 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amira 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 14,805 US residents.
Is Amira a common name?
We classify Amira as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,434 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amira most popular?
The single biggest year for Amira was 2024, when 2,181 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amira is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 16,501 people with the name Amira, or 5.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,796 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 Amira 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 Amira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amira appears almost entirely female. Of the 16,499 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Amira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amira is White at 35.7%. The next largest groups are Black (34.5%) and Hispanic (14.6%). 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 Amira most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Amira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.7% (5,885 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 Amira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Amira 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 Amira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amira 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 Amira 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 share the name Amira?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.