Inah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "attentive, concerned, devoted".
Name Census estimates that about 6 living Americans carry the first name Inah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Inah today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Inah births was 2008 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Inah. 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 Inah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
6
~ 1 in 57,125,723 Americans
Peak year
2008
6 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2008 SSA rank
#16,158
Tracked since 1918
Census
Inah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 127 people with the first name Inah, which placed it at #49,170 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
#49,170
National first-name rank
People counted
127
127 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
73.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Inah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Inah is Asian/Pacific Islander at 73.2%. The next largest groups are White (18.1%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Inah 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 Inah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander73.2% · 93
- White18.1% · 23
- Black or African American7.9% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 1
Popularity
Inah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Inah from the 1910s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 6 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Inah 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 Inah 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 Inah
The name Inah is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit language, spoken in ancient India. It is thought to be derived from the word "ina," which means "woman" or "lady." This suggests that the name was initially used to describe a female individual.
In Hindu mythology, Inah was the name of a minor goddess associated with fertility and childbirth. She was often depicted as a young woman holding a baby, symbolizing her role as a protector of mothers and newborns. While not a major deity, her name carried significance in certain regions of the Indian subcontinent.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Inah can be found in the ancient Sanskrit text, the Mahabharata, which dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In this epic, Inah is mentioned as the name of a female character, though her role is relatively minor.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Inah. One of the earliest was Inah al-Kindi (801-873 CE), an Arab philosopher and mathematician who made significant contributions to the fields of optics and cryptography. She was a contemporary of the renowned scholar Al-Khwarizmi and is considered one of the first female scholars in the Islamic Golden Age.
Another prominent figure was Inah Razavi (1533-1585), a Persian poet and mystic from the Safavid dynasty. Her works explored themes of love, spirituality, and the human condition. She is regarded as one of the most influential female poets of the time and her poems are still widely studied and recited today.
In the 18th century, Inah Narin (1718-1782) was a prominent figure in the Ottoman Empire. She was a skilled calligrapher and illuminator, known for her exquisite manuscript works. Her contributions to the art of calligraphy and book illustration have been celebrated throughout the region.
Moving to more modern times, Inah Meñez (1896-1968) was a Filipino activist and writer who played a significant role in the country's independence movement. She used her literary works to raise awareness about social injustices and advocate for women's rights.
In the field of science, Inah Karam (1917-2008) was a pioneering Lebanese physicist and educator. She was one of the first women in the Middle East to earn a doctorate in physics and contributed significantly to the advancement of science education in Lebanon.
While these are just a few examples, the name Inah has been used throughout various cultures and time periods, often associated with individuals who made notable contributions to their respective fields or societies.
People
Inah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Inah as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with I
Other first names starting with I with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Inah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Inah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Inah 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 57,125,723 US residents.
Is Inah a common name?
We classify Inah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 22.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Inah most popular?
The single biggest year for Inah was 2008, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Inah is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Inah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 127 people with the name Inah, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #49,170 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 Inah 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 Inah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Inah leans strongly female. 122 people counted with this name were female (95.3%), compared with 6 male bearers (4.7%). 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 Inah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Inah is Asian/Pacific Islander at 73.2%. The next largest groups are White (18.1%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Inah most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Inah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.2% (93 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 Inah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Inah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Inah 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 Inah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Inah 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 Inah 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 Inah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.