Min
A feminine Korean name meaning "truth" or "intrepid".
Name Census estimates that about 615 living Americans carry the first name Min. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Min today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Min births was 1993 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Min. 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 Min with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
615
~ 1 in 557,324 Americans
Peak year
1993
30 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2018 SSA rank
#10,380
Tracked since 1953
Census
Min in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,777 people with the first name Min, which placed it at #2,222 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
#2,222
National first-name rank
People counted
12K
11,777 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
96.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Min
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Min is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.0%) and Hispanic (0.7%). 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 Min 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 Min at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander96.1% · 11,316
- White2.0% · 240
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 82
- Two or more races0.6% · 76
- Black or African American0.5% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.0% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Min
Min is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 638 total registrations, 395 (61.9%) were male and 243 (38.1%) were female.
Min as a male name
- Ranked #10,380 in 2018
- 7 male births in 2018
- Peak: 1994 (20 births)
Min as a female name
- Ranked #16,810 in 2023
- 5 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1993 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Min on both sides of the split. Of the 11,776 people counted with this name, 4,373 were male (37.1%) and 7,403 were female (62.9%).
Popularity
Min: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Min from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 230 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Min 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 Min during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mins live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, New York, Maryland recorded the most babies named Min, while Maryland, New York, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Min
Min is a name with origins dating back to ancient times. It is believed to have originated from the Egyptian hieroglyphic word "mn", which means "to endure" or "to be firm". The name Min was associated with the ancient Egyptian deity Min, who was the god of fertility, vegetation, and male virility.
The name Min first appeared in written records around 3100 BC, during the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt. It was a common name among the Egyptian nobility and ruling class, as Min was one of the most revered deities in the Egyptian pantheon. The cult of Min was centered in the city of Akhmim, where a temple dedicated to the god was located.
One of the earliest known references to the name Min can be found in the Pyramid Texts, a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary inscriptions dating back to around 2400 BC. These texts contain spells and incantations that were meant to assist the deceased pharaoh in their journey to the afterlife, and they frequently invoked the name of Min as a symbol of fertility and regeneration.
Throughout ancient Egyptian history, several notable individuals bore the name Min. One of the most famous was Min-Nakht, a high-ranking official who lived during the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550-1292 BC). Min-Nakht served as the governor of the important city of Thebes and oversaw the construction of many significant monuments, including his own elaborate tomb.
In ancient Greek mythology, there was a figure named Min who was associated with the god Pan. According to some accounts, Min was a son of Pan and a companion of the god in his wild revelries and adventures.
During the Hellenistic period, the name Min was also adopted by some Greeks and Romans, although it was not as common as in ancient Egypt. One notable example is Min of Mendes, a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 3rd century BC and wrote extensively on the subjects of geometry and mechanics.
In more recent times, the name Min has been used by individuals from various cultural backgrounds, although it remains relatively uncommon. Some notable examples include Min Kush, a 13th-century Persian poet and mystic, and Min Liang Tan, the co-founder and CEO of the gaming hardware company Razer, who was born in Singapore in 1977.
People
Min + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Min 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
Min: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Min?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 615 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Min 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 557,324 US residents.
Is Min a common name?
We classify Min as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 638 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Min most popular?
The single biggest year for Min was 1993, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Min is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Min in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,777 people with the name Min, or 3.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,222 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 Min 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 Min?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Min on both sides of the split. Of the 11,776 people counted with this name, 4,373 were male (37.1%) and 7,403 were female (62.9%). 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 Min?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Min is Asian/Pacific Islander at 96.1%. The next largest groups are White (2.0%) and Hispanic (0.7%). 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 Min most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Min in the 2020 Census, accounting for 96.1% (11,316 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 Min in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Min a male name?
Yes, 61.9% of people registered as Min 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 Min still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Min 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 Min 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 Min?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.