Yanique
A feminine name of West Indian origin with various suggested meanings such as "precious one" or "God is gracious".
Name Census estimates that about 353 living Americans carry the first name Yanique. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Yanique today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Yanique births was 1992 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Yanique. 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 Yanique with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
353
~ 1 in 970,975 Americans
Peak year
1992
18 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2022 SSA rank
#15,213
Tracked since 1968
Census
Yanique in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 944 people with the first name Yanique, which placed it at #12,955 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
#12,955
National first-name rank
People counted
944
944 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
91.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Yanique
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yanique is Black at 91.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Yanique 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 Yanique at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American91.9% · 868
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 34
- Two or more races2.5% · 24
- White1.6% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 3
Popularity
Yanique: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Yanique from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 121 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Yanique 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 Yanique during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Yaniques live
Origin
Meaning and history of Yanique
The given name Yanique has its origins in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica. It is a feminine name that is derived from the French word "unique", meaning "unique" or "one of a kind". The name likely emerged in the late 20th century as a blend of French and Jamaican influences, reflecting the island's cultural diversity and connections to both European and African roots.
While the name itself does not have a documented history dating back centuries, its French root word "unique" can be traced back to the Latin word "unicus", which means "single" or "sole". This Latin word has its origins in the Proto-Indo-European root "*oi-no-", meaning "one" or "single".
There are no known historical references to the name Yanique in ancient texts, religious scriptures, or early historical records. Its relatively modern origins suggest that it is a more contemporary creation, possibly emerging in the late 20th century or early 21st century.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Yanique is the Jamaican-American author and educator Yanique Nathalie Wilkinson, born in 1977. She is known for her novel "A Wife of Willesden" and her short story collection "Tuk Music", which explore themes of identity, migration, and cultural belonging.
Another notable figure with the name Yanique is Yanique Spence, a Jamaican track and field athlete who competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She specialized in the 400-meter hurdles and was a multiple-time national champion in Jamaica.
Yanique Burgher, born in 1984, is a former Miss Jamaica World and Miss Universe contestant from Jamaica. She represented her country at the Miss Universe pageant in 2004.
Yanique Hume, born in 1991, is a Jamaican professional footballer who has played for the Jamaica women's national football team and clubs in the United States and Iceland.
Yanique Redwood, born in 1976, is a Jamaican-born British entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is the founder of the Caribbean Food Week festival in London, celebrating Caribbean cuisine and culture.
It is important to note that while this report provides some historical context and notable individuals with the name Yanique, the name's relatively modern origins mean that there may be limited information available on its early usage or recorded instances prior to the late 20th century.
People
Yanique + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Yanique as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with Y
Other first names starting with Y with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Yanique: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Yanique?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 353 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Yanique 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 970,975 US residents.
Is Yanique a common name?
We classify Yanique as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 367 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Yanique most popular?
The single biggest year for Yanique was 1992, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Yanique is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Yanique in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 944 people with the name Yanique, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,955 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 Yanique 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 Yanique?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Yanique leans strongly female. 927 people counted with this name were female (97.3%), compared with 26 male bearers (2.7%). 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 Yanique?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Yanique is Black at 91.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.6%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Yanique most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Yanique in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.9% (868 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 Yanique in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Yanique a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Yanique 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 Yanique still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Yanique 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 Yanique 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 Yanique as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.