Faten
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "captivating" or "attractive".
Name Census estimates that about 165 living Americans carry the first name Faten. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Faten today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Faten births was 1981 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Faten. 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 Faten with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
165
~ 1 in 2,077,299 Americans
Peak year
1981
14 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2015 SSA rank
#15,110
Tracked since 1976
Census
Faten in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,370 people with the first name Faten, which placed it at #9,919 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
#9,919
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,370 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Faten
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faten is White at 92.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.8%) and Black (1.6%). 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 Faten 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 Faten at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.3% · 1,264
- Two or more races4.8% · 66
- Black or African American1.6% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 8
Popularity
Faten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Faten from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 66 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Faten 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 Faten 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 Faten
The name Faten is of Arabic origin and is derived from the Arabic root word "fatana," which means "to tempt" or "to seduce." It is a feminine name that originated in the Arab world during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Faten can be found in Arabic literature and poetry from the 8th and 9th centuries. It was a popular name among Arab poets and writers who often used it to describe beautiful and charming women. The name was also mentioned in some of the earliest Arabic dictionaries and onomastic works, which provided insights into its meaning and etymology.
In Islamic history, there are records of several notable women who bore the name Faten. One of the most famous was Faten bint al-Husayn, a Shia Muslim who lived in the 7th century and was known for her piety and devotion to her faith. She was the daughter of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and was revered as a saint by Shia Muslims.
Another historical figure with the name Faten was Faten al-Nisaburi, a 10th-century Arab poet and scholar from the city of Nishapur in modern-day Iran. She was renowned for her mastery of Arabic poetry and literature, and her works were widely studied and admired throughout the Arab world.
In the 12th century, there was a famous Sufi mystic named Faten al-Baghdadi, who was born in Baghdad and was known for her spiritual teachings and writings on the inner path of Sufism.
During the Ottoman Empire, the name Faten was popular among the Turkish aristocracy and was borne by several notable women, including Faten Sultan, a 16th-century Ottoman princess who was the daughter of Sultan Selim II.
In more recent times, the name Faten has been carried by several influential Arab women, including Faten Hamama, an Egyptian actress and singer who was born in 1931 and was considered one of the most popular and influential figures in Arabic cinema.
People
Faten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Faten 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
Faten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Faten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 165 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Faten 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 2,077,299 US residents.
Is Faten a common name?
We classify Faten as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 174 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Faten most popular?
The single biggest year for Faten was 1981, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Faten is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Faten in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,370 people with the name Faten, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,919 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 Faten 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 Faten?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Faten appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,366 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Faten?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Faten is White at 92.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.8%) and Black (1.6%). 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 Faten most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Faten in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.3% (1,264 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 Faten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Faten a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Faten 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 Faten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Faten 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 Faten 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 Faten?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.