Maame
A feminine Akan name meaning "woman born on Saturday".
Name Census estimates that about 174 living Americans carry the first name Maame. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Maame today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Maame births was 2003 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Maame. 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 Maame with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
174
~ 1 in 1,969,853 Americans
Peak year
2003
13 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,702
Tracked since 1999
Census
Maame in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 438 people with the first name Maame, which placed it at #22,648 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
#22,648
National first-name rank
People counted
438
438 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
93.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Maame
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maame is Black at 93.6%. The next largest groups are White (3.7%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Maame 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 Maame at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American93.6% · 410
- White3.7% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 3
- Two or more races0.2% · 1
Popularity
Maame: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Maame from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 76 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Maame remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Maame 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 Maame during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Maames live
Origin
Meaning and history of Maame
The name Maame originates from the Akan language spoken by the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast in West Africa. It is a feminine name that can be traced back to the 17th century.
Maame is derived from the Akan word "maame" which means "woman", "lady", or "mother". The name is often given to girls as a sign of respect and honor for the important role of women in Akan culture and society.
In Akan tradition, the name Maame is associated with strength, resilience, and nurturing qualities. It is believed to bestow upon the bearer the virtues of a caring and responsible woman, who is dedicated to her family and community.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Maame can be found in the historical accounts of the Asante Empire, a powerful Akan kingdom that existed from the late 17th to the late 19th century. Maame Efua was a renowned queen mother and advisor to the Asantehene (King of the Asante) in the 18th century.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Maame. Maame Dokono was a revered Akan queen and military leader in the late 18th century, known for her bravery and strategic skills in battle.
Maame Sua was a celebrated Akan poet and storyteller in the 19th century, renowned for her oral traditions and preservation of Akan culture through her literary works.
Maame Efua Sutherland (1924-1996) was a Ghanaian playwright, writer, and cultural activist who played a significant role in promoting and preserving Ghanaian literature and traditions.
Maame Biney (born 2000) is a contemporary Ghanaian-American short-track speed skater who represented the United States in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Maame Adjei (born 1989) is a Ghanaian-American actress known for her roles in television series like "SEAL Team" and "9-1-1: Lone Star".
People
Maame + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Maame as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Maame: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Maame?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 174 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Maame 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 1,969,853 US residents.
Is Maame a common name?
We classify Maame as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 176 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Maame most popular?
The single biggest year for Maame was 2003, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Maame is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Maame in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 438 people with the name Maame, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,648 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 Maame 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 Maame?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Maame appears almost entirely female. Of the 436 people counted with this name, 99.3% 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 Maame?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Maame is Black at 93.6%. The next largest groups are White (3.7%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Maame most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Maame in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.6% (410 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 Maame in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Maame a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Maame 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 Maame still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Maame 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 Maame 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 named Maame?
Find out how many people share the name Maame on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.