Eman
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "faith" or "conviction".
Name Census estimates that about 2,429 living Americans carry the first name Eman. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Eman today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Eman births was 2024 (89 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Eman. 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 Eman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 141,109 Americans
Peak year
2024
89 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,799
Tracked since 1972
Census
Eman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,234 people with the first name Eman, which placed it at #3,788 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
#3,788
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Eman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eman is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.6%). 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 Eman 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 Eman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.6% · 3,799
- Black or African American10.6% · 556
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.6% · 502
- Two or more races5.2% · 271
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 99
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Eman
Eman leans heavily female at 87.5% of total registrations, but 311 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Eman as a male name
- Ranked #3,818 in 2024
- 29 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (29 births)
Eman as a female name
- Ranked #2,799 in 2024
- 60 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2001 (79 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eman leans strongly female. 4,817 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 416 male bearers (7.9%).
Popularity
Eman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Eman from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 696 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Eman remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Eman 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 Eman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Emans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. New York, California, Michigan recorded the most babies named Eman, while Florida, Virginia, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 121 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Eman
The name Eman is a variant of the Arabic name Iman, which means "faith" or "belief." It derives from the root word "amuna," meaning "to be faithful" or "to believe." The name has its origins in the Islamic faith and culture, and it gained popularity during the rise of Islam in the 7th century.
Eman is a relatively rare name, but it has been recorded throughout history. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Eman al-Bukhari, a renowned Islamic scholar and hadith collector who lived in the 9th century (810-870 CE). His work, Al-Jami' al-Sahih, is considered one of the most authentic collections of Prophetic traditions in Islam.
Another notable figure with the name Eman was Eman al-Shafi'i, an Islamic jurist and founder of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, who lived in the 9th century (767-820 CE). His legal theories and interpretations of Islamic law had a significant impact on the development of Sharia.
In the 12th century, there was Eman al-Ghazali, a Persian philosopher, theologian, and mystic (1058-1111 CE). He is renowned for his works on Islamic philosophy, particularly his book "The Incoherence of the Philosophers," which critiqued the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers.
Moving to more recent times, Eman al-Obeidi was an Iraqi woman who gained international attention in 2011 when she claimed to have been beaten and sexually assaulted by Libyan soldiers during the Libyan Civil War. Her bravery in speaking out brought global attention to the plight of women in conflict zones.
Finally, Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, an Egyptian woman who was once considered the heaviest woman in the world, underwent successful weight loss surgery in India in 2017. Her journey to regain her health and mobility inspired many people around the world.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have borne the name Eman, a name that carries with it a deep spiritual and cultural significance within the Islamic tradition.
People
Eman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Eman as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Eman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Eman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,429 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Eman 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 141,109 US residents.
Is Eman a common name?
We classify Eman as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,483 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Eman most popular?
The single biggest year for Eman was 2024, when 89 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Eman is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Eman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,234 people with the name Eman, or 1.73 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,788 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 Eman 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 Eman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Eman leans strongly female. 4,817 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 416 male bearers (7.9%). 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 Eman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Eman is White at 72.6%. The next largest groups are Black (10.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.6%). 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 Eman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Eman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.6% (3,799 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 Eman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Eman a female name?
Yes, 87.5% of people registered as Eman 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 Eman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Eman 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 Eman 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 have Eman as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Eman on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.