Musa
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "the born one".
Name Census estimates that about 5,395 living Americans carry the first name Musa. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Musa today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Musa births was 2024 (566 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Musa. 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 Musa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Musa is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
5.4K
~ 1 in 63,532 Americans
Peak year
2024
566 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#525
Tracked since 1891
Census
Musa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,963 people with the first name Musa, which placed it at #3,936 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
#3,936
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
4,963 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Musa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Musa is Black at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.8%) and White (26.3%). 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 Musa 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 Musa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.1% · 1,943
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.8% · 1,329
- White26.3% · 1,305
- Two or more races5.1% · 253
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 124
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Musa
Out of the 5,485 babies given the name Musa since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Musa as a male name
- Ranked #525 in 2024
- 566 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (566 births)
Musa as a female name
- Ranked #5,390 in 1926
- 5 female births in 1926
- Peak: 1918 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Musa leans strongly male. 4,847 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 108 female bearers (2.2%).
Popularity
Musa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Musa from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,105 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
Musa 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 Musa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Musas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Musa, while Oregon, Kentucky, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 165 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Musa
Musa is a masculine given name of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "mws" meaning "to draw out" or "to pull." It is closely associated with the name Moses, who is revered as a prophet in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
The name Musa can be traced back to the ancient Semitic languages, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In the Arabic language, "Musa" is the equivalent of the Hebrew name "Moshe," which is the biblical name for Moses.
In the Quran, the holy book of Islam, Musa is mentioned numerous times as a prophet who received divine revelations and led the Israelites out of Egypt. The story of Musa's encounter with Pharaoh and his subsequent exodus from Egypt is a significant narrative in the Quran.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Musa can be found in the Quran itself, where it is used to refer to the prophet Moses. This association with the biblical figure has made the name popular among Muslims worldwide.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Musa. One of the most famous was Musa al-Kazim (699-799 CE), the seventh Imam of Shia Islam, renowned for his piety and knowledge.
Another prominent figure was Musa bin Nusair (640-718 CE), an Arab general and governor who led the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, establishing Islamic rule in what is now Spain and Portugal.
In the realm of science, Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850 CE) was a renowned Persian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer who made significant contributions to the development of algebra and introduced the concept of algorithms.
Musa I of Mali (1280-1337 CE), also known as Kankan Musa, was an influential ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. He is famous for his prosperous reign and his famous pilgrimage to Mecca, which showcased the wealth and power of his empire.
In literature, Musa Jalil (1906-1944) was a prominent Tatar poet and writer who played a significant role in the development of Tatar literature during the Soviet era.
People
Musa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Musa 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
Musa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Musa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,395 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Musa 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 63,532 US residents.
Is Musa a common name?
We classify Musa as "Rare". It ranks above 96.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,485 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Musa most popular?
The single biggest year for Musa was 2024, when 566 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Musa is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Musa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,963 people with the name Musa, or 1.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,936 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 Musa 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 Musa?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Musa leans strongly male. 4,847 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 108 female bearers (2.2%). 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 Musa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Musa is Black at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.8%) and White (26.3%). 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 Musa most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Musa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.1% (1,943 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 Musa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Musa a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Musa in the SSA data are male. 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 Musa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Musa 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 Musa 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 Musa?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.