Amour
French name meaning "love" or "romantic love".
Name Census estimates that about 991 living Americans carry the first name Amour. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Amour today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amour births was 2023 (115 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amour. 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 Amour with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
991
~ 1 in 345,867 Americans
Peak year
2023
115 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,429
Tracked since 2001
Census
Amour in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 516 people with the first name Amour, which placed it at #20,138 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
#20,138
National first-name rank
People counted
516
516 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amour
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amour is Black at 77.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.4%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Amour 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 Amour at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.5% · 400
- Two or more races7.4% · 38
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 29
- White5.0% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Amour
Amour leans heavily female at 80.6% of total registrations, but 194 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Amour as a male name
- Ranked #4,877 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (37 births)
Amour as a female name
- Ranked #2,429 in 2024
- 74 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (88 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Amour on both sides of the split. Of the 512 people counted with this name, 121 were male (23.6%) and 391 were female (76.4%).
Popularity
Amour: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amour from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 496 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
Amour 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 Amour during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amours live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Florida, California recorded the most babies named Amour, while Maryland, Illinois, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 23 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amour
The name Amour is of French origin, derived from the French word "amour" which means "love" or "affection." The word itself can be traced back to the Latin word "amor," which also means "love."
In French culture, the concept of amour has been celebrated and romanticized throughout history. It is closely associated with the ideals of courtly love and chivalry that emerged during the Middle Ages. The name Amour may have been used as a symbolic representation of these romantic ideals.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Amour can be found in the works of the 12th-century French poet and composer, Chrétien de Troyes. His romantic poems and stories, such as "Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart," often featured characters with names that reflected the themes of love and chivalry.
In the 16th century, the French poet and philosopher, Pierre de Ronsard, wrote a famous poem titled "Le premier livre des Amours" (The First Book of Love). Although the name Amour was not used as a given name in this work, it further solidified the association between the word and the concept of romantic love in French literature.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Amour. One example is Amour Leroy (1621-1704), a French priest and historian who wrote extensively on the history of the city of Paris.
Another prominent figure was Amour de Bouille (1739-1800), a French military officer who played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War. He is known for his involvement in the siege of Savannah in 1779.
In the realm of literature, Amour de Cosmos (1825-1898) was a French-Canadian writer and lawyer who published several works on the history and culture of Quebec.
Amour Lortzing (1807-1851) was a German composer and actor best known for his comic operas, such as "Zar und Zimmermann" (The Tsar and the Carpenter).
Finally, Amour Bouquet (1774-1845) was a French painter and engraver who became famous for his portraits and historical paintings during the Napoleonic era.
These examples illustrate the diverse backgrounds and accomplishments of individuals who shared the name Amour, reflecting the rich cultural heritage and romantic associations of this French name.
People
Amour + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amour 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
Amour: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amour?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 991 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amour 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 345,867 US residents.
Is Amour a common name?
We classify Amour as "Very Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 998 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amour most popular?
The single biggest year for Amour was 2023, when 115 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amour is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amour in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 516 people with the name Amour, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,138 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 Amour 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 Amour?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Amour on both sides of the split. Of the 512 people counted with this name, 121 were male (23.6%) and 391 were female (76.4%). 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 Amour?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amour is Black at 77.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (7.4%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Amour most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Amour in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.5% (400 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 Amour in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amour a female name?
Yes, 80.6% of people registered as Amour 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 Amour still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amour 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 Amour 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 Amour?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.