Ameenah
An Arabic feminine name meaning "trustworthy" or "honest".
Name Census estimates that about 959 living Americans carry the first name Ameenah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ameenah today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ameenah births was 2016 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ameenah. 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 Ameenah with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
959
~ 1 in 357,408 Americans
Peak year
2016
43 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,436
Tracked since 1975
Census
Ameenah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 794 people with the first name Ameenah, which placed it at #14,743 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
#14,743
National first-name rank
People counted
794
794 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
72.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ameenah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ameenah is Black at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and White (6.9%). 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 Ameenah 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 Ameenah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American72.2% · 573
- Two or more races8.6% · 68
- White6.9% · 55
- Hispanic or Latino6.8% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.9% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 5
Popularity
Ameenah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ameenah from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 345 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ameenah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ameenah 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 Ameenah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ameenahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Ameenah, while Texas, Illinois, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 14 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ameenah
The name Ameenah is of Arabic origin and is derived from the word 'ameen', which means 'trustworthy' or 'faithful'. It is a feminine name that has been used in the Middle East and other parts of the Islamic world for centuries.
The name Ameenah can be traced back to the 7th century and is mentioned in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. It is believed that the name was inspired by the character of Ameenah bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, who was known for her honesty and integrity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ameenah can be found in the writings of the 9th-century scholar Ibn Qutaybah, who mentioned a woman named Ameenah bint Abi al-Aas, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Ameenah. One of the most famous was Ameenah al-Zahraniyyah (1923-2005), a renowned Egyptian singer and actress known for her powerful voice and contributions to the golden age of Egyptian cinema.
Another notable Ameenah was Ameenah Muhammed (1923-2008), an African-American Muslim leader and activist who played a crucial role in the Nation of Islam and the civil rights movement in the United States.
In the field of literature, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim (born 1959) is a Mauritian biologist and writer who served as the sixth President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
Ameenah Firdaus Osman (born 1989) is a Malaysian singer and songwriter who has gained popularity for her unique blend of contemporary and traditional Malay music.
Ameenah Sooman (born 1981) is a Canadian author and educator of Indian descent, known for her work on promoting diversity and inclusivity in children's literature.
People
Ameenah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ameenah 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
Ameenah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ameenah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 959 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ameenah 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 357,408 US residents.
Is Ameenah a common name?
We classify Ameenah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 983 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ameenah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ameenah was 2016, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ameenah is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ameenah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 794 people with the name Ameenah, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,743 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 Ameenah 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 Ameenah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ameenah leans strongly female. 789 people counted with this name were female (99.0%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.0%). 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 Ameenah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ameenah is Black at 72.2%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (8.6%) and White (6.9%). 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 Ameenah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ameenah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.2% (573 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 Ameenah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ameenah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ameenah 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 Ameenah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ameenah 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 Ameenah 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 share the name Ameenah?
You can see how many people have the name Ameenah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.