Aminata
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "trustworthy" or "faithful".
Name Census estimates that about 2,208 living Americans carry the first name Aminata. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Aminata today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Aminata births was 2015 (99 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Aminata. 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 Aminata with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Aminata is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
2.2K
~ 1 in 155,233 Americans
Peak year
2015
99 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,298
Tracked since 1974
Census
Aminata in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,479 people with the first name Aminata, which placed it at #5,065 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
#5,065
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,479 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
95.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Aminata
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aminata is Black at 95.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.0%) and Hispanic (1.3%). 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 Aminata 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 Aminata at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American95.1% · 3,309
- Two or more races2.0% · 68
- Hispanic or Latino1.3% · 45
- White1.2% · 41
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 12
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 4
Popularity
Aminata: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Aminata 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 801 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Aminata remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Aminata 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 Aminata during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Aminatas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio recorded the most babies named Aminata, while Massachusetts, District of Columbia, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 117 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Aminata
The name Aminata originates from the Fulani language spoken by the Fulani people of West Africa. It is derived from the Arabic name Aminah, meaning "faithful" or "trustworthy." The Fulani are a widely dispersed ethnic group found across multiple countries in the Sahel and West Africa region, including Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
In the 18th century, Aminata was the name of a prominent Fulani woman who lived in modern-day Guinea. She was captured and enslaved in 1756 at the age of 11 and taken to South Carolina, where she later regained her freedom and became a respected author and storyteller. Her memoir, "The Book of Negroes," provided a firsthand account of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade and the struggles of enslaved Africans in America.
Another notable figure with the name Aminata was Aminata Diallo, a 20th-century Malian writer and activist. Born in 1953, she was a prominent voice for women's rights and education in Mali. Her works, such as "The Rebellious Woman" and "The Shadows of the Sun," explored themes of gender inequality, tradition, and social change in West African society.
In the 19th century, Aminata Diarra was a Malian princess and military leader who played a significant role in the Toucouleur Empire's resistance against French colonization. She commanded a regiment of female soldiers and fought alongside her husband, El Hadj Oumar Tall, in several battles against the French forces in the mid-1800s.
Aminata Sow Fall, born in 1941, is a renowned Senegalese novelist and scholar. Her writings, including "The Beggars' Strike" and "The Revenant," explore themes of social injustice, gender roles, and the impact of colonialism on African societies. She is considered a pioneering voice in Francophone African literature and has received numerous literary awards and honors.
Aminata Touré, born in 1962, is a Guinean politician and former Prime Minister of Guinea. She served as the country's first female Prime Minister from 2008 to 2010, and has been a prominent advocate for women's rights, democracy, and good governance in West Africa.
People
Aminata + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Aminata 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
Aminata: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Aminata?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,208 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Aminata 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 155,233 US residents.
Is Aminata a common name?
We classify Aminata as "Rare". It ranks above 94.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,241 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Aminata most popular?
The single biggest year for Aminata was 2015, when 99 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Aminata is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Aminata in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,479 people with the name Aminata, or 1.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,065 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 Aminata 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 Aminata?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Aminata appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,480 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Aminata?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Aminata is Black at 95.1%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.0%) and Hispanic (1.3%). 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 Aminata most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Aminata in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.1% (3,309 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 Aminata in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Aminata a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Aminata 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 Aminata still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Aminata 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 Aminata 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 Aminata?
You can see how many Americans are named Aminata on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.