Amoy
A feminine Filipino name meaning "fragrance" or "aroma".
Name Census estimates that about 97 living Americans carry the first name Amoy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Amoy today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amoy births was 2011 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amoy. 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 Amoy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Amoy. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
97
~ 1 in 3,533,550 Americans
Peak year
2011
14 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,135
Tracked since 1999
Census
Amoy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 410 people with the first name Amoy, which placed it at #23,765 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
#23,765
National first-name rank
People counted
410
410 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
89.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amoy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amoy is Black at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Amoy 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 Amoy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American89.0% · 365
- Two or more races3.9% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 12
- White2.0% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino1.7% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 2
Popularity
Amoy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amoy 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 43 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Amoy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amoy 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 Amoy 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 Amoy
The name Amoy is believed to have originated from the Chinese Hokkien language, which is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in parts of Southeast Asia. The name is derived from the Hokkien word "镋城" (Ā-moī), which means "beautiful and pleasant".
The earliest known use of the name Amoy dates back to the late 16th century, when it was used to refer to the city of Xiamen, located in the Fujian province of China. The name was adopted by Portuguese sailors and traders who frequented the area, and they romanized the Hokkien pronunciation to "Amoy".
In historical records, the name Amoy appeared in various travel logs and accounts written by European explorers and merchants who visited the region. One notable mention can be found in the writings of the Dutch explorer Jan Huygen van Linschoten, who visited Amoy (Xiamen) in the late 16th century and described it as a thriving port city.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Amoy. One of the earliest recorded examples is Amoy Lingam (1868-1941), a prominent Indian lawyer and politician who was the first Indian to be appointed as a judge in the Straits Settlements (now part of Malaysia and Singapore).
Another notable figure was Amoy Loh (1892-1968), a Chinese-American actress and dancer who was one of the first Asian Americans to achieve success in Hollywood during the early 20th century.
In the realm of literature, Amoy Guindi (1924-2013) was an Egyptian novelist and short story writer who gained recognition for her works exploring themes of identity, gender, and social issues in Arab societies.
The name Amoy also appears in religious texts and traditions. In Chinese Buddhist texts, there are references to a monk named Amoy Tsang, who is believed to have lived during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and was renowned for his teachings on meditation and mindfulness.
Additionally, in the Indian state of Kerala, there is a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess Amoy Bhagavathy, who is revered as a manifestation of the divine feminine and is associated with fertility and prosperity.
People
Amoy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amoy 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
Amoy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amoy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 97 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amoy 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 3,533,550 US residents.
Is Amoy a common name?
We classify Amoy as "Very Rare". It ranks above 64.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 98 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amoy most popular?
The single biggest year for Amoy was 2011, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amoy is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amoy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 410 people with the name Amoy, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,765 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 Amoy 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 Amoy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amoy leans strongly female. 382 people counted with this name were female (92.9%), compared with 29 male bearers (7.1%). 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 Amoy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amoy is Black at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (3.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Amoy most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Amoy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.0% (365 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 Amoy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amoy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Amoy 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 Amoy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amoy 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 Amoy 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 called Amoy?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.