Muneerah
The feminine Arabic name meaning "the bright one", "the luminous".
Name Census estimates that about 49 living Americans carry the first name Muneerah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Muneerah today is around 35 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Muneerah births was 1977 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Muneerah. 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 Muneerah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Muneerah. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
49
~ 1 in 6,994,986 Americans
Peak year
1977
8 babies that year
Average age
35
years old
2013 SSA rank
#18,436
Tracked since 1977
Census
Muneerah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 131 people with the first name Muneerah, which placed it at #48,547 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
#48,547
National first-name rank
People counted
131
131 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
66.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Muneerah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Muneerah is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.1%) and White (11.5%). 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 Muneerah 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 Muneerah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American66.4% · 87
- Asian and Pacific Islander19.1% · 25
- White11.5% · 15
- Two or more races3.1% · 4
Popularity
Muneerah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Muneerah from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 15 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Muneerah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Muneerah 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 Muneerah 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 Muneerah
The name Muneerah is of Arabic origin and is derived from the root word "nur," which means "light" or "illumination." It is a feminine name that has been used in the Arab world for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Muneerah can be found in Islamic literature, where it is mentioned as one of the names of the Prophet Muhammad's wives. Muneerah bint Jahsh was a prominent figure in early Islamic history, known for her piety and devotion to her faith.
During the medieval period, the name Muneerah gained popularity among Arab royalty and aristocracy. Several notable women bore this name, including Muneerah bint Al-Hakim, a princess of the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt during the 11th century.
In the modern era, the name Muneerah has continued to be widely used across the Arab world and among Muslim communities worldwide. Some notable individuals who have borne this name include Muneerah Al-Ghadeer, a Saudi Arabian poet and writer born in 1936, and Muneerah Al-Muhairi, an Emirati businesswoman and philanthropist.
Other famous individuals with the name Muneerah include Muneerah Al-Mazrou, a Saudi Arabian educator and advocate for women's rights, born in 1947, and Muneerah Hamdan, a Syrian author and journalist born in 1957.
Another notable figure is Muneerah Bee, an Indian classical dancer and choreographer who was born in 1919 and made significant contributions to the field of Kathak dance.
The name Muneerah has endured through the centuries, carrying with it the symbolic meaning of light and illumination. Its rich history and cultural significance have made it a popular choice among Arabic-speaking communities and a name that continues to be cherished and celebrated.
People
Muneerah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Muneerah 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
Muneerah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Muneerah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 49 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Muneerah 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 6,994,986 US residents.
Is Muneerah a common name?
We classify Muneerah as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 51 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Muneerah most popular?
The single biggest year for Muneerah was 1977, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Muneerah is about 35 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Muneerah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 131 people with the name Muneerah, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,547 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 Muneerah 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 Muneerah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Muneerah leans strongly female. 130 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 2 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Muneerah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Muneerah is Black at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (19.1%) and White (11.5%). 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 Muneerah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Muneerah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.4% (87 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 Muneerah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Muneerah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Muneerah 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 Muneerah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Muneerah 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 Muneerah 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 Muneerah?
Want to know how many Americans are named Muneerah? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.