Mariama
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "daughter of a prophet".
Name Census estimates that about 2,056 living Americans carry the first name Mariama. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Mariama today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mariama births was 2024 (77 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mariama. 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 Mariama with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.1K
~ 1 in 166,709 Americans
Peak year
2024
77 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,369
Tracked since 1971
Census
Mariama in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,901 people with the first name Mariama, which placed it at #4,678 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
#4,678
National first-name rank
People counted
3.9K
3,901 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
92.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mariama
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariama is Black at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.6%) and White (2.3%). 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 Mariama 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 Mariama at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American92.4% · 3,603
- Two or more races2.6% · 100
- White2.3% · 91
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 80
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 23
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 4
Popularity
Mariama: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mariama 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 634 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Mariama remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mariama 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 Mariama during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mariamas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. New York, Maryland, Ohio recorded the most babies named Mariama, while Virginia, Texas, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 75 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mariama
The name Mariama is of West African origin, particularly from the Mandinka and Bambara ethnic groups of Mali and Senegal. It is derived from the Arabic name Maryam, which is the Arabic form of the biblical name Miriam, the name of the sister of Moses and Aaron in the Old Testament. The name Mariama is a variant of Maryam and has been in use since ancient times in West Africa.
The name Mariama is believed to have been brought to West Africa through the spread of Islam in the region, which began as early as the 8th century AD. As Islam became more widespread, Arabic names like Maryam and its variants, such as Mariama, became popular among the Muslim population of West Africa.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mariama is in the 13th-century Mandinka epic poem, the Sundiata, which tells the story of the legendary Mandinka ruler Sundiata Keita. In this epic, there is a character named Mariama, who is the sister of Sundiata.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Mariama. One of the most famous was Mariama Bâ (1929-1981), a Senegalese novelist and feminist writer who was one of the first women writers from West Africa to achieve international recognition. Her novel "Une si longue lettre" (So Long a Letter) is considered a classic of African literature.
Another notable Mariama was Mariama Traoré (1957-1999), a Malian singer and songwriter who was one of the leading voices of the Wassoulou genre of music. Her powerful and emotive vocals brought her international acclaim and she is considered one of Mali's most important cultural icons.
Mariama Niass (1926-2022) was a Senegalese educator and activist who played a significant role in promoting women's education and empowerment in her country. She was the founder of the Association of Senegalese Women Jurists and was awarded the prestigious UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 1994.
Mariama Khan (1835-1905) was a West African princess and later a queen regent of the Khasso kingdom, which was located in present-day Mali and Guinea. She was known for her military prowess and for leading her troops in battles against French colonial forces in the late 19th century.
Mariama Jamanka (born 1990) is a German bobsledder of Gambian descent who has won multiple Olympic and World Championship medals in her sport. She is one of the most successful bobsledders in German history and has helped to raise the profile of the sport in her country.
People
Mariama + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mariama 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
Mariama: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mariama?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,056 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mariama 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 166,709 US residents.
Is Mariama a common name?
We classify Mariama as "Rare". It ranks above 93.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,099 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mariama most popular?
The single biggest year for Mariama was 2024, when 77 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mariama is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mariama in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,901 people with the name Mariama, or 1.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,678 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 Mariama 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 Mariama?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mariama appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,901 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Mariama?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mariama is Black at 92.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.6%) and White (2.3%). 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 Mariama most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mariama in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.4% (3,603 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 Mariama in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mariama a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mariama 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 Mariama still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mariama 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 Mariama 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 Americans are named Mariama?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.