Ramiah
An Arabic feminine name meaning "exalted" or "flourishing".
Name Census estimates that about 540 living Americans carry the first name Ramiah. It is a predominantly female name (96.5% of registrations). The average person named Ramiah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ramiah births was 2004 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ramiah. 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 Ramiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
540
~ 1 in 634,730 Americans
Peak year
2004
32 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2022 SSA rank
#6,844
Tracked since 1979
Census
Ramiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 470 people with the first name Ramiah, which placed it at #21,552 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
#21,552
National first-name rank
People counted
470
470 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ramiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ramiah is Black at 68.1%. The next largest groups are White (10.6%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Ramiah 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 Ramiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.1% · 320
- White10.6% · 50
- Two or more races8.5% · 40
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Ramiah
Ramiah leans heavily female at 96.5% of total registrations, but 19 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ramiah as a male name
- Ranked #13,859 in 2022
- 5 male births in 2022
- Peak: 1979 (8 births)
Ramiah as a female name
- Ranked #6,844 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ramiah leans strongly female. 400 people counted with this name were female (83.9%), compared with 77 male bearers (16.1%).
Popularity
Ramiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ramiah 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 218 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Ramiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ramiah 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 Ramiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ramiah
The name Ramiah is believed to have its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word "rama," which means "to throw" or "to shoot." The name is thought to have been bestowed upon individuals who were skilled archers or warriors in ancient times.
The earliest recorded use of the name Ramiah can be traced back to the 7th century CE, during the early years of the Islamic era. It appears in some historical records and texts from that time, though its precise origins are somewhat unclear.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Ramiah was an Arab poet and warrior who lived in the late 7th century CE. He was renowned for his bravery and skill in battle, as well as his poetic talents.
Another notable figure with the name Ramiah was a scholar and philosopher who lived in the 9th century CE in present-day Iraq. He wrote extensively on topics such as logic, metaphysics, and ethics, and his works were widely influential during the Islamic Golden Age.
In the 12th century CE, there was a prominent Islamic jurist named Ramiah al-Qurashi who hailed from the city of Mecca. He was widely respected for his expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and his contributions to the field of Sharia law.
During the 13th century CE, a renowned physician and scientist named Ramiah al-Andalusi lived in the city of Seville, which was then part of the Moorish kingdom of Al-Andalus. He made significant contributions to the fields of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.
In the 16th century CE, a Sufi mystic and poet named Ramiah al-Baghdadi gained fame for his spiritual teachings and his beautiful verses, which were widely circulated and studied in the Islamic world at the time.
While the name Ramiah has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and regions over the centuries. However, the examples mentioned above represent some of the most notable historical figures who bore this name.
People
Ramiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ramiah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ramiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ramiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 540 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ramiah 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 634,730 US residents.
Is Ramiah a common name?
We classify Ramiah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 547 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ramiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ramiah was 2004, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ramiah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ramiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 470 people with the name Ramiah, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,552 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 Ramiah 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 Ramiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ramiah leans strongly female. 400 people counted with this name were female (83.9%), compared with 77 male bearers (16.1%). 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 Ramiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ramiah is Black at 68.1%. The next largest groups are White (10.6%) and Two or More Races (8.5%). 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 Ramiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ramiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.1% (320 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 Ramiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ramiah a female name?
Yes, 96.5% of people registered as Ramiah 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 Ramiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ramiah 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 Ramiah 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 the name Ramiah?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.