Fatai
An Arabic name meaning "young seeker" or "newly initiated".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Fatai. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fatai today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fatai births was 1997 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fatai. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Fatai. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1997
5 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1997 SSA rank
#9,743
Tracked since 1997
Census
Fatai in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 270 people with the first name Fatai, which placed it at #31,633 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
#31,633
National first-name rank
People counted
270
270 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
80.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fatai
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fatai is Black at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.3%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Fatai 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 Fatai at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American80.0% · 216
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.3% · 44
- Two or more races2.2% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino1.1% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
Popularity
Fatai: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Fatai 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 Fatai during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Fatai
The name Fatai has its origins in the Yoruba culture of West Africa, specifically Nigeria. It is a masculine name that has been in use for centuries. Fatai is derived from the Yoruba words "fa" meaning "to gather" and "tai" meaning "wealth". Thus, the name Fatai can be interpreted to mean "one who gathers wealth".
In ancient Yoruba society, wealth was not just measured in material possessions but also in the number of children, livestock, and land one owned. Therefore, the name Fatai was considered auspicious and was often given to boys with the hope that they would grow up to be successful and prosperous.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fatai can be found in the Ifa literary corpus, a collection of oral traditions and divination verses that form the basis of the Yoruba religion. In these texts, Fatai is mentioned as the name of a mythical figure who was known for his wisdom and prosperity.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Fatai. One such person was Fatai Arobieke (c. 1830-1905), a prominent Yoruba trader and landowner in the 19th century. He was known for his business acumen and his ability to amass significant wealth through trade and agriculture.
Another famous Fatai was Fatai Olugbade (1887-1967), a Nigerian educator and politician who played a crucial role in the establishment of western-style education in his home region of Ijebu. He was also a member of the Nigerian Legislative Council and advocated for the rights of the Ijebu people.
In the field of sports, Fatai Amoo (1924-1983) was a Nigerian footballer who played as a striker for various clubs in the 1940s and 1950s. He was part of the Nigerian national team that won the country's first international football trophy, the Gottfried Daimler Cup, in 1949.
Fatai Olagunju (1935-2019) was a renowned Nigerian playwright and actor who made significant contributions to the development of Yoruba theater. His plays often explored themes of tradition, modernity, and social issues, and he was celebrated for his mastery of the Yoruba language.
Lastly, Fatai Rolling Dollar (1927-2013) was a Nigerian musician and bandleader who popularized the palmwine music genre. He was known for his unique stage name and his ability to blend traditional Yoruba rhythms with modern instrumentation.
People
Fatai + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fatai as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fatai: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fatai?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fatai 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Fatai a common name?
We classify Fatai as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fatai most popular?
The single biggest year for Fatai was 1997, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fatai is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fatai in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 270 people with the name Fatai, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,633 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 Fatai 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 Fatai?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fatai leans strongly male. 233 people counted with this name were male (88.6%), compared with 30 female bearers (11.4%). 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 Fatai?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fatai is Black at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.3%) and Two or More Races (2.2%). 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 Fatai most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Fatai in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.0% (216 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 Fatai in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fatai a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fatai 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 Fatai still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fatai 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 Fatai 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 the name Fatai?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Fatai, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.