Mina
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "prosperous" or "wished for".
Name Census estimates that about 12,841 living Americans carry the first name Mina. It is a predominantly female name (96.6% of registrations). The average person named Mina today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mina births was 2021 (523 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mina. 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 Mina with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Mina is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 657 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
13K
~ 1 in 26,692 Americans
Peak year
2021
523 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#608
Tracked since 1880
Census
Mina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 19,870 people with the first name Mina, which placed it at #1,608 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
#1,608
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
19,870 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mina is White at 53.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.4%) and Hispanic (9.6%). 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 Mina 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 Mina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.6% · 10,660
- Asian and Pacific Islander23.4% · 4,648
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 1,910
- Two or more races8.2% · 1,637
- Black or African American4.5% · 895
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 120
Gender
Gender distribution for Mina
Mina leans heavily female at 96.6% of total registrations, but 657 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Mina as a male name
- Ranked #6,680 in 2024
- 13 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (31 births)
Mina as a female name
- Ranked #608 in 2024
- 493 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (512 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mina leans strongly female. 16,956 people counted with this name were female (85.3%), compared with 2,911 male bearers (14.7%).
Popularity
Mina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 3,962 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mina remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mina 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 Mina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Minas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Mina, while South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 262 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mina
The name Mina has its origins in several languages and cultures. It is a feminine form of the male name Minos, which is derived from the ancient Greek word "minos" meaning "king" or "ruler". The name was borne by the legendary King Minos of Crete, a figure from Greek mythology who was said to have ruled over the island of Crete in the second millennium BC.
Mina is also a variant spelling of the name Minna, which is a German diminutive form of the name Wilhelmina, meaning "resolute protector". In Scandinavian countries, Mina is a shortened form of the name Vilhelmina, which has the same meaning as Wilhelmina.
In Arabic, the name Mina (منى) means "wish" or "desire". It is a popular name in the Middle East and is also used in some parts of India and Pakistan. The name Mina is also found in the Quran, where it refers to the valley near the holy city of Mecca where pilgrims gather during the Hajj pilgrimage.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mina is in ancient Roman times. Mina was the name of a Roman goddess of fertility and childbirth, who was sometimes associated with the Greek goddess Proserpina.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures with the name Mina. Mina Loy (1882-1966) was a British-born American artist, poet, and novelist, known for her avant-garde poetry and her involvement in the Futurist movement. Mina Sundwall (1886-1958) was a Finnish artist and painter, known for her portraits and landscapes.
Mina Wylie (1891-1984) was a Scottish-born American suffragist and social worker, who played a significant role in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. Mina Rees (1902-1997) was an American mathematician and computer scientist, who made important contributions to the development of numerical analysis and the use of computers in scientific research.
Mina Becker (1924-2017) was a German-born American artist and sculptor, known for her abstract sculptures and her work in various media, including bronze, steel, and stone.
People
Mina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mina 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
Mina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12,841 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mina 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 26,692 US residents.
Is Mina a common name?
We classify Mina as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 19,429 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mina most popular?
The single biggest year for Mina was 2021, when 523 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mina is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 19,870 people with the name Mina, or 6.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,608 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 Mina 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 Mina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mina leans strongly female. 16,956 people counted with this name were female (85.3%), compared with 2,911 male bearers (14.7%). 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 Mina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mina is White at 53.6%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.4%) and Hispanic (9.6%). 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 Mina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.6% (10,660 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 Mina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mina a female name?
Yes, 96.6% of people registered as Mina 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 Mina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mina 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 Mina 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 have Mina as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Mina on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.