Amen
An affirmative expression derived from Hebrew meaning "so be it".
Name Census estimates that about 2,031 living Americans carry the first name Amen. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Amen today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amen births was 2019 (153 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amen. 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 Amen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Amen sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Amen 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
2.0K
~ 1 in 168,761 Americans
Peak year
2019
153 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,130
Tracked since 1975
Census
Amen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,625 people with the first name Amen, which placed it at #8,804 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
#8,804
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,625 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
75.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amen is Black at 75.9%. The next largest groups are White (12.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Amen 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 Amen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American75.9% · 1,233
- White12.2% · 199
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 86
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 63
- Two or more races2.2% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Amen
Amen is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,050 total registrations, 1,186 (57.9%) were male and 864 (42.1%) were female.
Amen as a male name
- Ranked #2,130 in 2024
- 69 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (79 births)
Amen as a female name
- Ranked #3,327 in 2024
- 47 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2020 (82 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Amen on both sides of the split. Of the 1,621 people counted with this name, 941 were male (58.1%) and 680 were female (41.9%).
Popularity
Amen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amen 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 1,023 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Amen remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amen 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 Amen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. Virginia, Texas, Maryland recorded the most babies named Amen, while Tennessee, New York, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 61 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amen
The name Amen has its origins in ancient Egyptian language and culture, dating back to the third millennium BC. It is derived from the Egyptian word "Amun" or "Amon," which was the name of an important deity in the ancient Egyptian pantheon. Amun was considered the king of the gods and the god of the sun, air, and fertility.
The name Amen gained wider recognition and usage in religious contexts after it was adopted by the Hebrews and incorporated into the Bible. In Hebrew, the word "Amen" means "truth" or "so be it," and it is often used at the end of prayers or statements to affirm their truthfulness or to express agreement.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Amen in a historical context can be found in the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, where the prophet Jeremiah mentions a man named Amen who was the son of Shaphan and a high-ranking official in the court of King Josiah of Judah (around 640-609 BC).
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Amen. One of the earliest was Amenhotep III, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled from approximately 1388 to 1350 BC and was known for his prolific building projects, including the construction of the famous Colossi of Memnon statues.
Another significant figure was Amenemhat I, the founder of the 12th Dynasty in ancient Egypt, who ruled from around 1991 to 1962 BC and is credited with initiating a period of stability and prosperity in the kingdom.
In the Christian tradition, St. Amen was a 4th-century Egyptian monk and hermit who lived in the Nitrian Desert. He is celebrated as a saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
In the Islamic world, Amen ibn Hunayn was a renowned 9th-century scholar and physician who made significant contributions to the fields of medicine and philosophy. He lived from around 808 to 873 AD and served as a court physician to several Abbasid caliphs.
Finally, in more modern times, Amen-Ra Masry was an Egyptian actor and comedian who lived from 1905 to 1982 and gained popularity for his satirical performances and social commentary during the mid-20th century.
People
Amen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amen 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
Amen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,031 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amen 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 168,761 US residents.
Is Amen a common name?
We classify Amen as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,050 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amen most popular?
The single biggest year for Amen was 2019, when 153 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amen 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 Amen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,625 people with the name Amen, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,804 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 Amen 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 Amen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Amen on both sides of the split. Of the 1,621 people counted with this name, 941 were male (58.1%) and 680 were female (41.9%). 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 Amen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amen is Black at 75.9%. The next largest groups are White (12.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Amen most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Amen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.9% (1,233 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 Amen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amen a male name?
Yes, 57.9% of people registered as Amen in the SSA data are male. 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 Amen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amen 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 Amen 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 are named Amen?
Find out how many people have the name Amen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.