Head to head · Girls' names
Amara vs Quinn
#98 vs #97 in 2025
Quinn is a whisker ahead (#97 vs #98 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Quinn is stepping back from its peak, Amara is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Amara has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Quinn leads 5 measures of 6; Amara leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1940s: Amara —, Quinn #5243 — Quinn higher
- 1950s: Amara —, Quinn #6086 — Quinn higher
- 1960s: Amara #5544, Quinn #3510 — Quinn higher
- 1970s: Amara #3375, Quinn #3572 — Amara higher
- 1980s: Amara #2156, Quinn #1400 — Quinn higher
- 1990s: Amara #1272, Quinn #1123 — Quinn higher
- 2000s: Amara #660, Quinn #643 — Quinn higher
- 2010s: Amara #420, Quinn #126 — Quinn higher
- 2020s: Amara #128, Quinn #86 — Quinn higher
Quinn stood higher in 8 of 9 decades; Quinn has held the lead since the 1980s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Amara | Quinn |
|---|---|---|
| 1940s | — | #5243 |
| 1950s | — | #6086 |
| 1960s | #5544 | #3510 |
| 1970s | #3375 | #3572 |
| 1980s | #2156 | #1400 |
| 1990s | #1272 | #1123 |
| 2000s | #660 | #643 |
| 2010s | #420 | #126 |
| 2020s | #128 | #86 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Amara
Not charting outside the US.
Quinn
- Canada#77
- Scotland#79
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Amara
'grace' in Igbo; 'immortal, undying' in Sanskrit; 'bitter' in Latin
These are three genuinely separate roots that happen to meet at one spelling. In Igbo, amara means grace or mercy, and sits inside the longer names Amarachi and Amarachukwu, 'God's grace'. In Sanskrit, amara means immortal or undying, the negative of a root for dying. In Latin, amara is the feminine of amarus, bitter, and survives in Italian as the ordinary word. Which reading applies depends entirely on which tradition a family is drawing from, and none of the three cancels the others.
How it traveled
There is no single homeland for this name. The Igbo of southeastern Nigeria have long used amara, grace, as a name element, most fully in Amarachi and Amarachukwu, and the short form Amara travels with Igbo families wherever they settle.
Quinn
Descendant of Conn — a name read as either "chief" or "sense, counsel"
Quinn is the anglicized form of the Irish Ó Cuinn, "descendant of Conn". What Conn itself meant is where scholars part ways: one reading takes it from Old Irish conn, "chief, head"; another from a word for sense, reason or counsel. Both readings are long-standing and neither has driven the other out.
Conn → Ó Cuinn → Quinn
How it traveled
Ó Cuinn was a surname of several distinct Irish families, notably in Tyrone, Longford and Clare, and it was anglicized to Quinn and Quin as English administration reshaped Irish names. The Conn behind it is an old and honored Irish name — Conn Cétchathach, Conn of the Hundred Battles, is a High King in early Irish legend and tradition.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Amara
uh-MAR-uh
The usual American reading puts the stress on the middle syllable. In Igbo the three syllables are more evenly weighted, closer to ah-MAH-rah, and many families keep that fuller vowel. Both are correct; it helps to decide which one you will be repeating.
- Mara — The most natural short form in English, and a long-established given name in its own right in several European languages.
- Ama — Informal clip of the first two syllables; also stands alone as an Akan day name for a girl born on Saturday.
- Ami — Casual, family-level short form; spelled Amy by some, which shifts it toward a different name entirely.
Quinn
KWIN
One syllable, rhyming with "win". The same in Ireland, Britain, Canada and the US — there is no second pronunciation to correct.
- Q — Informal, mostly spoken rather than written; common with any Q name.
- Quinny — Family and playground use; tends to fall away in the teenage years.
- Quinnie — Affectionate, used within families more than outside them.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Amara if you want…
- a name on the way upup 44 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itAmara runs 3 syllables, Quinn 1
Choose Quinn if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsQuinn is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesQuinn is 1 syllable to Amara's 3
- a name that charts abroad tooQuinn is on the national lists of Canada and Scotland
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Amara
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, with no silent letters and no fork in the road for a stranger reading it aloud.
- Belongs independently to Igbo, Sanskrit and Latin traditions, so it is recognizable rather than foreign in a wide range of families.
- Has real short forms already in use — Mara, Ama — rather than none at all or one you would have to invent.
To consider
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood — Amira, Amaya, Amora, Tamara — so expect the occasional gentle correction rather than outright misspelling.
- Italian and Romanian speakers will hear the everyday word for 'bitter' before they hear a name. Worth knowing if that is your family's language.
- The name is on a clear upward path. A child born now is likely to meet more Amaras by high school than the current picture suggests, though nothing near the level of a top-ten name.
Quinn
Strengths
- One syllable and phonetic: people who hear it can spell it, and people who read it can say it.
- Works unchanged across the English-speaking world — it also charts in Canada and Scotland, and it is instantly recognizable in Ireland.
- Traceable to a real Irish surname with centuries of records behind it, rather than a recent coinage.
To consider
- In the US this spelling now goes mostly to girls, with a steady minority of boys. A boy named Quinn will not be unusual, but he may meet more girls with his name than boys — worth knowing rather than worrying about.
- Quinn is one of the most common Irish surnames in America, so it can read as a last name first, particularly on forms and rosters. Families with an Irish surname of their own may find the combination sounds like two surnames.
- It reaches children by two roads: the Irish surname, and as a short form of Quinton, Quintin or Quinlan. Some people will assume the longer name is hiding somewhere and ask for it.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Amara
53%chance Amara feels dated by 2040
Amara is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Quinn
70%chance Quinn feels dated by 2040
Quinn is coming down from a big peak (#73 in 2022). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Amara and Quinn in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Amara and Quinn?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Distinctly American names
- America's top 100 names right now
- Five-letter names, the comfortable middle
- all guides
Every list here names both Amara and Quinn — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Amara or Quinn — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Amara or Quinn?
- Quinn, in 2025: Quinn ranked #97 with 2,634 babies; Amara ranked #98 with 2,630 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Amara or Quinn?
- Amara. Over the last five years Amara moved up 44 places; Quinn moved down 13 places.
- Which is the older name, Amara or Quinn?
- Amara entered the US charts in 1961; Quinn entered the US charts in 1948. On the American record, Quinn is the older name.
- How many people are named Amara and Quinn?
- About 29,000 people named Amara are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 52,000 people named Quinn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Amaras or Quinns in the classroom?
- Amara will almost certainly be the only one in school. Quinn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Amara, Quinn and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap