Ameriah
A unique feminine name of unknown origin, possibly an invented name.
Name Census estimates that about 292 living Americans carry the first name Ameriah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ameriah today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ameriah births was 2009 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ameriah. 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.
People living today
292
~ 1 in 1,173,816 Americans
Peak year
2009
29 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,627
Tracked since 1996
Census
Ameriah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 224 people with the first name Ameriah, which placed it at #35,741 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
#35,741
National first-name rank
People counted
224
224 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ameriah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ameriah is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and White (12.9%). 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 Ameriah 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 Ameriah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.7% · 136
- Hispanic or Latino13.8% · 31
- White12.9% · 29
- Two or more races8.9% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.1% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Popularity
Ameriah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ameriah from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 137 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ameriah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ameriah 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 Ameriah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ameriah
The name Ameriah has its origins in Hebrew, stemming from the root word "amar" which means "to say" or "to speak". It is believed to have emerged during the biblical era in the ancient Middle East, particularly in the region of modern-day Israel and the surrounding areas.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ameriah can be found in the Book of Nehemiah, an ancient Jewish text from the 5th century BCE. In this text, Ameriah is mentioned as the name of a priestly family that returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.
Throughout the centuries, the name Ameriah has been associated with several notable figures. In the 1st century CE, Ameriah ben Avraham was a renowned Jewish scholar and rabbi who authored several commentaries on the Torah and the Talmud.
During the Middle Ages, Ameriah al-Andalusi was a Spanish-born Jewish philosopher and poet who lived in the 12th century. His works explored various aspects of Jewish theology and ethics, and he was highly regarded in the intellectual circles of his time.
In the 16th century, Ameriah de Modena was an Italian rabbi and scholar known for his contributions to Jewish law and his defense of the Jewish community against accusations of ritual murder.
Another prominent figure bearing the name Ameriah was Ameriah ben Yitzchak, a 17th-century Jewish mystic and kabbalist from Poland. He is particularly known for his esoteric writings on the Zohar, a foundational text of Jewish mysticism.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who carried the name Ameriah, a name that has endured for centuries and has been embraced across various cultures and regions.
People
Ameriah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ameriah 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
Ameriah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ameriah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 292 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ameriah 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 1,173,816 US residents.
Is Ameriah a common name?
We classify Ameriah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 295 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ameriah most popular?
The single biggest year for Ameriah was 2009, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ameriah is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ameriah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 224 people with the name Ameriah, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,741 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 Ameriah 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 Ameriah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ameriah appears almost entirely female. Of the 222 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 Ameriah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ameriah is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and White (12.9%). 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 Ameriah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ameriah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.7% (136 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 Ameriah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ameriah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ameriah 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 Ameriah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ameriah 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 Ameriah 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 Americans are named Ameriah?
Want to know how many people have the name Ameriah? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.