Amara
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "immortal" or "eternal".
Name Census estimates that about 26,324 living Americans carry the first name Amara. It sits at #121 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Amara today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amara births was 2024 (2,300 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amara. 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 Amara with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Amara is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 287 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Amara is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
26K
~ 1 in 13,021 Americans
Peak year
2024
2,300 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#121
Tracked since 1961
Census
Amara in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,325 people with the first name Amara, which placed it at #1,873 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
#1,873
National first-name rank
People counted
15K
15,325 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
34.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amara
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amara is White at 34.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.7%) and Hispanic (18.8%). 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 Amara 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 Amara at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White34.5% · 5,281
- Black or African American24.7% · 3,789
- Hispanic or Latino18.8% · 2,874
- Two or more races14.6% · 2,233
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.3% · 969
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 179
Gender
Gender distribution for Amara
Amara leans heavily female at 98.9% of total registrations, but 287 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Amara as a male name
- Ranked #6,834 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (17 births)
Amara as a female name
- Ranked #121 in 2024
- 2,288 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (2,288 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amara leans strongly female. 14,783 people counted with this name were female (96.5%), compared with 544 male bearers (3.5%).
Popularity
Amara: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amara from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 10,513 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
Amara 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 Amara during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amaras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Amara, while Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 479 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amara
The name Amara has its origins in the Sanskrit language, which is an ancient Indo-Aryan language from the Indian subcontinent. The name is derived from the Sanskrit word "amara," which means "immortal" or "eternal." It is believed to have been in use since ancient times in India, possibly as early as the 5th century BCE.
In Hindu mythology, Amara is one of the names of the god Vishnu, who is considered the preserver and protector of the universe. The name is also associated with the concept of immortality and the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Amara can be found in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, which dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In the epic, Amara is mentioned as the name of a sage or rishi.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Amara. One of the most famous was Amara Sinha, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet who lived in the 7th century CE. He is best known for his work, the Amarakosha, which is a Sanskrit thesaurus and one of the oldest dictionaries in the world.
Another notable figure with the name Amara was Amara Devi, a 16th-century Indian queen and warrior who ruled the Gond kingdom in central India. She is celebrated for her bravery and military prowess in defending her kingdom against invaders.
In the realm of literature, Amara Lingam was a prominent Tamil writer and poet from the 20th century. He was known for his works that explored social and political themes, and he received several literary awards during his lifetime.
Amara Essy was an Egyptian feminist and writer who lived in the early 20th century. She was a pioneering figure in the women's rights movement in Egypt and wrote extensively on issues such as women's education and empowerment.
Amara Lakhous is an Algerian-Italian writer and academic who has published several novels and works of non-fiction. His works often explore themes of cultural identity, migration, and the immigrant experience.
People
Amara + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amara as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Amara: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amara?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 26,324 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amara 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 13,021 US residents.
Is Amara a common name?
We classify Amara as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 26,615 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amara most popular?
The single biggest year for Amara was 2024, when 2,300 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amara is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amara in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,325 people with the name Amara, or 5.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,873 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 Amara 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 Amara?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amara leans strongly female. 14,783 people counted with this name were female (96.5%), compared with 544 male bearers (3.5%). 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 Amara?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amara is White at 34.5%. The next largest groups are Black (24.7%) and Hispanic (18.8%). 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 Amara most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Amara in the 2020 Census, accounting for 34.5% (5,281 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 Amara in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amara a female name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Amara 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 Amara still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amara 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 Amara 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 Amara?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.