Umme
A feminine Muslim name meaning "mother" or "leader of the nation".
Name Census estimates that about 89 living Americans carry the first name Umme. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Umme today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Umme births was 2020 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Umme. 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 Umme with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Umme. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
89
~ 1 in 3,851,172 Americans
Peak year
2020
12 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,002
Tracked since 2001
Census
Umme in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 666 people with the first name Umme, which placed it at #16,791 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
#16,791
National first-name rank
People counted
666
666 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
97.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Umme
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Umme is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.9%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.6%). 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 Umme 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 Umme at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander97.6% · 650
- Two or more races0.9% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 3
- Black or African American0.3% · 2
- White0.2% · 1
Popularity
Umme: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Umme from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 45 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
Umme 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 Umme during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ummes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Umme
The name Umme is a variant of the Arabic name Umm, which means "mother" or "source." It is derived from the Arabic root word "umm," meaning mother or origin. This name has its origins in the Arabian Peninsula and can be traced back to the pre-Islamic era.
Umme was a common name among the early Muslim community and is mentioned in several Islamic texts and traditions. One of the most notable references is in the Quran, where the word "umm" is used to refer to Mother Mary, the mother of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon them).
The earliest recorded examples of the name Umme can be found in historical records and biographical accounts from the 7th century CE. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Umme Habibah bint Abi Sufyan, a wife of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and a renowned scholar of her time (556–632 CE).
Another notable figure in Islamic history was Umme Kulthum bint Ali, the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima (the daughter of Prophet Muhammad). She was born in 598 CE and was known for her piety, knowledge, and poetry.
In the medieval period, Umme al-Banin Zainab Bint Akhzam (d. 659 CE) was a prominent jurist and scholar from Medina, who played a significant role in preserving and transmitting Islamic knowledge.
During the Abbasid Caliphate, Umme Hakim Khayzuran (d. 789 CE) was a prominent figure and the mother of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi. She wielded considerable political influence and was known for her patronage of scholars and poets.
Another notable bearer of the name was Umme al-Khayr Fatima, a renowned Andalusian scholar and mystic from the 11th century CE, who played a crucial role in the transmission of Islamic knowledge in the Iberian Peninsula.
Throughout history, the name Umme has been widely used in various parts of the Muslim world, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. It continues to be a popular choice for Muslim families, carrying with it the significance of motherhood, nurturing, and reverence for one's origins.
People
Umme + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Umme as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with U
Other first names starting with U with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Umme: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Umme?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 89 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Umme 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 3,851,172 US residents.
Is Umme a common name?
We classify Umme as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 90 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Umme most popular?
The single biggest year for Umme was 2020, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Umme is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Umme in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 666 people with the name Umme, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,791 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 Umme 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 Umme?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Umme appears almost entirely female. Of the 664 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Umme?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Umme is Asian/Pacific Islander at 97.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (0.9%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.6%). 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 Umme most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Umme in the 2020 Census, accounting for 97.6% (650 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 Umme in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Umme a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Umme 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 Umme still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Umme 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 Umme 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 Umme as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.