Minette
A diminutive of the French name Minnie, derived from the name Minerva.
Name Census estimates that about 399 living Americans carry the first name Minette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Minette today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Minette births was 1968 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Minette. 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 Minette with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
399
~ 1 in 859,033 Americans
Peak year
1968
20 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2020 SSA rank
#16,736
Tracked since 1893
Census
Minette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 735 people with the first name Minette, which placed it at #15,605 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
#15,605
National first-name rank
People counted
735
735 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Minette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minette is White at 48.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%). 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 Minette 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 Minette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.7% · 358
- Black or African American18.1% · 133
- Asian and Pacific Islander17.8% · 131
- Hispanic or Latino11.8% · 87
- Two or more races3.5% · 26
Popularity
Minette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Minette from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 130 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Minette 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 Minette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Minettes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Minette
The given name Minette has its origins in the French language, deriving from the word "minette," which means "little pussycat" or "little kitten." This name emerged in France during the Middle Ages, around the 12th to 15th centuries.
Minette was likely a diminutive form of the French name Minerve, which itself was derived from the Roman goddess Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, war, art, and craft. The name Minerve was quite popular in medieval France, and the diminutive Minette became a common pet form, often used as a term of endearment for young girls.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Minette can be found in the medieval French literary work "Roman de la Rose," written in the 13th century by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. In this allegorical poem, the character Minette is portrayed as a young and charming lady.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Minette. One of the most famous was Minette Stuart Wortley (1662-1718), an English aristocrat and writer who was known for her travel writings and her advocacy for the smallpox vaccination. Another notable Minette was Minette Walters (born 1949), a contemporary British writer known for her crime novels.
In the 19th century, Minette Ledru-Rollin (1804-1888) was a French feminist and activist who advocated for women's rights and education. Minette Gerome (1845-1898) was a French painter and sculptor who specialized in genre scenes and portraits.
More recently, Minette Batters (born 1956) is a British farmer and the current president of the National Farmers' Union in the United Kingdom, advocating for the interests of British farmers.
While the name Minette may have originated as a diminutive or pet name, it has developed into a standalone given name in its own right, carrying a sense of charm, grace, and endearment.
People
Minette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Minette 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
Minette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Minette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 399 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Minette 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 859,033 US residents.
Is Minette a common name?
We classify Minette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 82.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 731 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Minette most popular?
The single biggest year for Minette was 1968, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Minette is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Minette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 735 people with the name Minette, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,605 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 Minette 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 Minette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Minette appears almost entirely female. Of the 731 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Minette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minette is White at 48.7%. The next largest groups are Black (18.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (17.8%). 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 Minette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Minette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.7% (358 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 Minette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Minette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Minette 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 Minette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Minette 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 Minette 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 Minette?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.