Damani
A feminine name of African origin meaning "beautiful, precious".
Name Census estimates that about 3,156 living Americans carry the first name Damani. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Damani today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Damani births was 2012 (198 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Damani. 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 Damani with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 108,604 Americans
Peak year
2012
198 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,027
Tracked since 1971
Census
Damani in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,170 people with the first name Damani, which placed it at #7,115 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
#7,115
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Damani
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damani is Black at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.0%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Damani 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 Damani at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American78.9% · 1,713
- Hispanic or Latino10.0% · 218
- Two or more races7.2% · 157
- White2.4% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Damani
Damani leans heavily male at 80.1% of total registrations, but 638 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Damani as a male name
- Ranked #2,027 in 2024
- 75 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (158 births)
Damani as a female name
- Ranked #7,658 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (40 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damani leans strongly male. 1,756 people counted with this name were male (81.1%), compared with 410 female bearers (18.9%).
Popularity
Damani: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Damani 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 1,129 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Damani remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Damani 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 Damani during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Damanis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 21 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Damani, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Damani
The name Damani is of African origin, specifically from the Swahili language spoken in parts of East Africa. It is believed to have emerged during the 17th or 18th century when Swahili culture was flourishing along the coastal regions of present-day Kenya and Tanzania.
Damani is derived from the Swahili word "amani," which means "peace" or "tranquility." The prefix "da" is often used in Swahili to denote a person who possesses or embodies a particular quality or characteristic. Thus, the name Damani can be interpreted as "one who brings or embodies peace."
While the name does not appear to have any direct references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, its association with the concept of peace aligns with the principles of many spiritual and philosophical traditions across Africa and beyond.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Damani can be traced back to the late 18th century, when it was used by members of the Swahili community in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya. However, it was not until the 20th century that the name gained wider popularity, both within Africa and among the African diaspora in other parts of the world.
Notable historical figures with the name Damani include:
1. Damani Denzel, a Ghanaian musician and songwriter born in 1976, known for his contributions to the Ghanaian hiplife genre.
2. Damani Johnson, an American professional basketball player born in 1990, who played in various leagues including the NBA G League.
3. Damani Baker, an American author and motivational speaker born in 1977, known for his work on personal development and self-improvement.
4. Damani Phillips, an American visual artist and painter born in 1982, known for her vibrant and expressive abstract works.
5. Damani Lemore, an American football player born in 1988, who played as a defensive back in the National Football League (NFL) from 2010 to 2014.
The name Damani has remained popular among various African communities and has also gained recognition globally, reflecting the diverse cultural heritage and values associated with its meaning of peace and tranquility.
People
Damani + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Damani as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Damani: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Damani?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,156 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Damani 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 108,604 US residents.
Is Damani a common name?
We classify Damani as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,203 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Damani most popular?
The single biggest year for Damani was 2012, when 198 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Damani is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Damani in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,170 people with the name Damani, or 0.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,115 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 Damani 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 Damani?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Damani leans strongly male. 1,756 people counted with this name were male (81.1%), compared with 410 female bearers (18.9%). 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 Damani?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Damani is Black at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.0%) and Two or More Races (7.2%). 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 Damani most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Damani in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (1,713 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 Damani in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Damani a male name?
Yes, 80.1% of people registered as Damani 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 Damani still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Damani 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 Damani 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 Damani?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.