Mousa
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "drawn from the water" or "born".
Name Census estimates that about 506 living Americans carry the first name Mousa. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mousa today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mousa births was 2023 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mousa. 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.
People living today
506
~ 1 in 677,380 Americans
Peak year
2023
30 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,025
Tracked since 1978
Popularity
Mousa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mousa from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 164 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Mousa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mousa 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 Mousa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Mousas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Mousa
The name Mousa has its origins in the Arabic language and culture. It is derived from the Arabic root word 'Musa', which means 'drawn from the water' or 'saved from the water'. The name is closely associated with the biblical figure Moses, who was rescued from the Nile River as an infant.
In Arabic, the name Mousa is a variant spelling of the more common name Musa. It is widely used across the Middle East and among Muslim communities worldwide. The name appears in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam, as it refers to the prophet Moses, who is regarded as one of the most revered figures in Islamic tradition.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Mousa can be found in the 7th century AD, during the time of the Islamic conquests. Mousa ibn Nusair was a prominent Arab general who led the Muslim conquest of Iberia (modern-day Spain and Portugal) in 711 AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Mousa. Mousa al-Kazim (699-799 AD) was a revered Shia imam and scholar who made significant contributions to Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850 AD) was a renowned Persian mathematician and astronomer, considered the father of algebra.
Another notable figure was Musa I of Mali (c. 1280-1337 AD), a powerful ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. He is famous for his pilgrimage to Mecca, during which he displayed the immense wealth of his kingdom, leaving a lasting impression on the cities he visited.
In the modern era, Mousa Al-Sadr (1928-1978) was a prominent Lebanese Shia Muslim philosopher and political leader who played a significant role in the Lebanese civil war before his mysterious disappearance in 1978.
Mousa Traore (1936-2020) was a Malian military officer and politician who served as the President of Mali from 1968 to 1991, during a period of political instability and economic challenges in the country.
People
Mousa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mousa 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
Mousa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mousa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 506 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mousa 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 677,380 US residents.
Is Mousa a common name?
We classify Mousa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 513 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mousa most popular?
The single biggest year for Mousa was 2023, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mousa is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Mousa a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mousa 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.
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.