Minnette
A feminine French diminutive form of the name Ermengarde, meaning "vigor" or "strong protector".
Name Census estimates that about 147 living Americans carry the first name Minnette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Minnette today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Minnette births was 1912 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Minnette. 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
- • The typical person named Minnette is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Minnettes were born before 1970.
People living today
147
~ 1 in 2,331,662 Americans
Peak year
1912
18 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1979 SSA rank
#8,649
Tracked since 1885
Census
Minnette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 351 people with the first name Minnette, which placed it at #26,494 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
#26,494
National first-name rank
People counted
351
351 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Minnette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minnette is White at 42.5%. The next largest groups are Black (38.2%) and Hispanic (10.0%). 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 Minnette 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 Minnette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.5% · 149
- Black or African American38.2% · 134
- Hispanic or Latino10.0% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 19
- Two or more races2.6% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 5
Popularity
Minnette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Minnette from the 1880s through to the 1970s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 125 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Minnette remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Minnette 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 Minnette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Minnettes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Minnette
The name Minnette originates from the French language and has its roots in the Old French word "minnon," which means "dainty" or "delicate." This name was particularly popular in France during the Middle Ages, between the 5th and 15th centuries.
Although the exact origin of the name is uncertain, some scholars believe it may be derived from the Latin word "minimus," meaning "smallest" or "least." This could suggest that the name was initially given to petite or delicate individuals. Minnette was also a diminutive form of the name Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and warfare.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Minnette can be found in a 13th-century French text, where it was used to describe a young woman of noble birth. Throughout the centuries, the name has been associated with grace, elegance, and refinement.
In the 14th century, a French noblewoman named Minnette de Montfort was renowned for her beauty and charm. She was a prominent figure at the court of King Charles VI and was celebrated in several poems and ballads of the time.
During the Renaissance period, Minnette Durand (1505-1572) was a renowned French painter and miniaturist. She was known for her exquisite portraits of royalty and noble families, and her work was highly sought after by patrons across Europe.
In the 17th century, Minnette de la Tour (1638-1718) was a French playwright and poet whose works explored themes of love, loss, and the human condition. Her play "La Princesse de Clèves" was considered a literary masterpiece and was widely acclaimed for its psychological depth and emotional resonance.
Minnette Olivier (1815-1879) was a Belgian artist and sculptor who gained recognition for her intricate and lifelike sculptures of animals and figures from nature. Her works were exhibited at prestigious salons in Paris and Brussels, and she was celebrated for her attention to detail and mastery of her craft.
In the 20th century, Minnette de Silva (1918-1998) was a renowned Sri Lankan writer and poet who wrote in both English and Sinhala. Her works explored themes of identity, culture, and the human experience, and she was celebrated for her lyrical and evocative writing style.
People
Minnette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Minnette 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
Minnette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Minnette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 147 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Minnette 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 2,331,662 US residents.
Is Minnette a common name?
We classify Minnette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 593 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Minnette most popular?
The single biggest year for Minnette was 1912, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Minnette is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Minnette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 351 people with the name Minnette, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #26,494 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 Minnette 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 Minnette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Minnette appears almost entirely female. Of the 352 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Minnette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minnette is White at 42.5%. The next largest groups are Black (38.2%) and Hispanic (10.0%). 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 Minnette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Minnette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.5% (149 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 Minnette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Minnette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Minnette 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 Minnette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Minnette 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 Minnette 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 Minnette?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.