Minas
Of Greek origin, meaning "mines" or "little mines".
Name Census estimates that about 114 living Americans carry the first name Minas. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Minas today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Minas births was 2023 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Minas. 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 Minas with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
114
~ 1 in 3,006,617 Americans
Peak year
2023
15 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,524
Tracked since 1973
Census
Minas in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 507 people with the first name Minas, which placed it at #20,390 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
#20,390
National first-name rank
People counted
507
507 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
91.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Minas
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minas is White at 91.1%. The next largest groups are Black (4.9%) and Hispanic (1.4%). 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 Minas 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 Minas at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White91.1% · 462
- Black or African American4.9% · 25
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 7
- Two or more races1.4% · 7
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 6
Popularity
Minas: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Minas from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 35 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
Minas 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 Minas 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 Minas
The name Minas is derived from the Greek word "minos," which means "king" or "ruler." It has its origins in the Minoan civilization, which flourished on the island of Crete between 2600 and 1400 BC.
The name Minas is closely associated with the legendary King Minos, who ruled over the island of Crete during the Bronze Age. According to Greek mythology, Minos was the son of Zeus and Europa and was known for his wisdom and justice. He was also famous for building the Labyrinth, which housed the Minotaur, a mythical creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Minas can be found in the works of ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. He mentions a Persian general named Minas who fought against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Minas. One of the most famous was Minas Gerais, a Brazilian statesman and military leader who played a crucial role in the Brazilian War of Independence in the early 19th century. He was born in 1767 and died in 1823.
Another prominent individual with the name Minas was Minas Christodoulakis, a Greek politician and diplomat who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 to 1938. He was born in 1874 and died in 1949.
In the realm of literature, Minas Gerais was also the name of a character in the novel "The Quarry," written by Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa in 1956. The character was a strong-willed woman who played a significant role in the story.
Minas Tirith, also known as the Tower of Guard, was a prominent fortified city in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, featured in his famous novel "The Lord of the Rings." It was the capital of the kingdom of Gondor and served as an important defensive stronghold against the forces of Sauron.
Finally, Minas Morgul was another location in Tolkien's Middle-earth, known as the "Tower of Black Sorcery." It was a fortress originally built by the men of Gondor but later occupied and corrupted by the Nazgûl, the dreaded Ringwraiths of Sauron.
People
Minas + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Minas 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
Minas: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Minas?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 114 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Minas 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 3,006,617 US residents.
Is Minas a common name?
We classify Minas as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 117 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Minas most popular?
The single biggest year for Minas was 2023, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Minas is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Minas in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 507 people with the name Minas, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,390 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 Minas 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 Minas?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Minas leans strongly male. 483 people counted with this name were male (95.3%), compared with 24 female 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 Minas?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minas is White at 91.1%. The next largest groups are Black (4.9%) and Hispanic (1.4%). 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 Minas most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Minas in the 2020 Census, accounting for 91.1% (462 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 Minas in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Minas a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Minas 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 Minas still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Minas 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 Minas 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 Minas?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.