Ama
Feminine · “Akan "born on Saturday”
Every Akan child receives a day name automatically at birth, and the system is a complete grid: seven days, two sexes, fourteen names. Ama is the name for a girl born on Saturday, and her brother born the same day would be Kwame.
How old is the name Ama?
Ama first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Ama alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 700 people named Ama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ama most popular?
Ama peaked in 1885, reaching #842 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 6,649 places below that high. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ama
Akan day names traveled to the Americas with the transatlantic slave trade and are documented in colonial records across the Caribbean and the American South, usually in anglicized spellings: Cudjoe from Kwadwo, Quashee from Kwasi, Cuffee from Kofi, Quaco from Kwaku, Juba and Abba from the feminine forms. They appear in plantation inventories, in runaway advertisements, and later as surnames — Cuffee and Coffey among them. That makes them one of the few directly traceable West African survivals in the naming record of the Americas. The American figures for Ama peak in 1885, and modern use follows Ghanaian immigration.
Meaning
Akan "born on Saturday"
From the Akan day-name system of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Saturday gives Ama for girls and Kwame for boys; Sunday gives Akosua and Kwasi; Monday Adwoa and Kwadwo; Friday Afua and Kofi. The day name is given at birth in addition to any other name, so an Akan person carries one automatically. Ama is separately a Japanese word and a Hebrew name, both unrelated.
Pronouncing Ama
AH-mah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with both vowels open. Akan is tonal, and the tone pattern carries information that English cannot reproduce.
Nicknames for Ama
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 201925 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #842reached in 1885
- Change vs 2023
- −33.3%14 in 2025, from 21
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Ama in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ama in Akan — same name
- Amma in Akan — spelling variant
- Ama in Ewe — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California.
Amas among us
people named Ama are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Ama
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Ama
- #7491
- Ama on the 2025 chart
- #936
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Ama went to 14 girls in 2025, but Amma is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 24, which makes it the 936th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,555 places above the chart.
- Ama14
- Amma10
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Ama itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Ama sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Ama beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ama in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, precise and tied to a documented system.
- It is short, three letters, and easy to say in any language.
- It is fully established in Ghana rather than invented.
- The meaning refers to a specific day, which may not match the birth.
- Several unrelated languages have a name spelled the same way.
- Very short names are sometimes rejected by forms and databases.
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What they receive
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Ama
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Ama are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Ama?
- Ama is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 24 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Amma.
- How popular is the name Ama in 2025?
- Ama ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ama?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Ama — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ama with classmates?
- Ama will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ama
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ama? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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