Mahogany
A name of Native American origin meaning "sweet wood" or "flat bark".
Name Census estimates that about 3,961 living Americans carry the first name Mahogany. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mahogany today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mahogany births was 2000 (164 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mahogany. 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.
People living today
4.0K
~ 1 in 86,532 Americans
Peak year
2000
164 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,354
Tracked since 1975
Census
Mahogany in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,874 people with the first name Mahogany, which placed it at #5,788 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
#5,788
National first-name rank
People counted
2.9K
2,874 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mahogany
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahogany is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Mahogany 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 Mahogany at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.2% · 2,563
- Two or more races4.3% · 123
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 105
- White1.9% · 55
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 11
Popularity
Mahogany: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mahogany from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,072 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mahogany remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mahogany 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 Mahogany during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mahoganys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 23 states and territories. North Carolina, Georgia, New York recorded the most babies named Mahogany, while Missouri, Arizona, Wisconsin recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 98 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mahogany
The name Mahogany has its origins in the mahogany tree, a species native to the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America. The mahogany tree has been highly prized for its rich, reddish-brown wood since the 16th century when Spanish explorers first encountered it in the New World.
The word "mahogany" itself is derived from the Taino word "mahau," which referred to the tree and its wood. The Taino were an indigenous people who inhabited the Caribbean Islands and parts of Florida before the arrival of Europeans. The Spanish adopted the Taino word, which eventually evolved into the English "mahogany."
While the name Mahogany is not found in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it has been used as a given name since the late 19th century, likely inspired by the beauty and value of the mahogany tree and its wood. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Mahogany was Mahogany Faust, an American artist born in 1889.
Other notable people named Mahogany throughout history include Mahogany L. Browne, an American writer and activist born in 1976, and Mahogany Jones, an American model and actress born in 1988. Mahogany Monee, an American social media personality born in 1995, has also gained recognition for her online presence.
In the literary world, Mahogany Browne, an American poet and author born in 1976, has made significant contributions to contemporary poetry and has been recognized with numerous awards and honors.
While the name Mahogany may have been initially inspired by the mahogany tree, it has since taken on a unique and distinctive character, representing beauty, strength, and resilience for those who bear it.
People
Mahogany + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mahogany as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mahogany: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mahogany?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,961 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mahogany 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 86,532 US residents.
Is Mahogany a common name?
We classify Mahogany as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,068 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mahogany most popular?
The single biggest year for Mahogany was 2000, when 164 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mahogany is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mahogany in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,874 people with the name Mahogany, or 0.95 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,788 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 Mahogany 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 Mahogany?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mahogany appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,875 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 Mahogany?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mahogany is Black at 89.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (3.7%). 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 Mahogany most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mahogany in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.2% (2,563 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 Mahogany in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mahogany a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mahogany 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 Mahogany still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mahogany 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 Mahogany 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 Mahogany?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.