Minnie
A diminutive of the names Minerva, Wilhelmina, or Araminta.
Name Census estimates that about 17,874 living Americans carry the first name Minnie. It is a predominantly female name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Minnie today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Minnie births was 1919 (3,288 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Minnie. 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 Minnie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Minnie is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 787 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Minnie is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Minnies were born before 1962.
- • Compared to the 1910s, recent registration numbers for Minnie have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,176 Americans
Peak year
1919
3,288 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1959 SSA rank
#2,758
Tracked since 1880
Census
Minnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,918 people with the first name Minnie, which placed it at #1,559 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
#1,559
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,918 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Minnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minnie is Black at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (38.7%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Minnie 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 Minnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American49.3% · 10,311
- White38.7% · 8,090
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 942
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 669
- Two or more races2.5% · 516
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 390
Gender
Gender distribution for Minnie
Out of the 160,011 babies given the name Minnie since 1880, 99.5% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Minnie as a male name
- Ranked #4,375 in 1959
- 5 male births in 1959
- Peak: 1925 (21 births)
Minnie as a female name
- Ranked #2,758 in 2024
- 62 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1916 (3,274 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Minnie appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,922 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Minnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Minnie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 27,588 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Minnie 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 Minnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Minnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Alabama, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Minnie, while Nevada, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,752 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Minnie
The name Minnie is a diminutive form of the name Minerva, which derives from the Roman goddess of wisdom and war. The name Minerva itself stems from an ancient Etruscan root meaning "mind" or "intellect". The first recorded use of the name Minnie dates back to the late 18th century, when it emerged as a nickname for Minerva in English-speaking regions.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Minnie was Minnie Caroline Austen, born in 1805. She was the niece of the renowned English novelist Jane Austen. Another notable figure was Minnie Ries, an American educator and philanthropist born in 1847. She helped establish the Chicago Kindergarten Club and worked to promote early childhood education.
In the world of literature, Minnie Maddern Fiske, born in 1865, was a celebrated American actress and playwright. She was known for her performances in plays by Shakespeare and other classical works. Minnie Cox, born in 1869, was a British trade unionist and suffragette who campaigned for women's rights and better working conditions.
One of the most famous individuals with the name Minnie was Minnie Buckingham Harper, born in 1886. She was a prominent African American educator, author, and activist who advocated for racial equality and women's rights. Her memoir, "Irons in the Fire," documented her experiences and struggles as a black woman in the early 20th century.
Throughout history, the name Minnie has been associated with strength, intelligence, and a pioneering spirit. While its origins can be traced back to ancient Roman mythology, the name has taken on a life of its own, carried by remarkable individuals who have left their mark on various fields, from education and literature to activism and social reform.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Minnie
People
Minnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Minnie 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
Minnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Minnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,874 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Minnie 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 19,176 US residents.
Is Minnie a common name?
We classify Minnie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 160,011 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Minnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Minnie was 1919, when 3,288 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Minnie is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Minnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,918 people with the name Minnie, or 6.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,559 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 Minnie 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 Minnie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Minnie appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,922 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Minnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Minnie is Black at 49.3%. The next largest groups are White (38.7%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Minnie most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Minnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (10,311 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 Minnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Minnie a female name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Minnie 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 Minnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Minnie 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 Minnie 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 Minnie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.