Amani
Feminine · Arabic roots · “Peace" in Swahili”
Amani is given to both — 13,440 girls and 2,890 boys since 1880. See Amani as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Amani travels on two roads at once: in Swahili it is the everyday word for peace, and in Arabic it is a name built from the word for a wish. Both go back to the same old Semitic root of safety and trust, so the two readings are cousins rather than strangers. Four open syllables, ah-MAH-nee, and almost every language a child will meet can say it on the first try.
How old is the name Amani?
Amani first appears in US birth records in 1969 — 56 years ago. The typical Amani alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 13,500 people named Amani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amani most popular?
Amani peaked in 2010, reaching #553 nationally. Today it ranks #678, 125 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Amani appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From amān (Arabic, "safety") to Amani
The story of Amani
The root behind Amani is one of the busiest in Arabic: ʼ-m-n, from which come words for faith, safety and trust, and names such as Iman and Amina. Arabic amān, "security," passed along the Indian Ocean trade routes into Swahili, where it settled as amani, the ordinary word used for peace along the East African coast — the word in the Swahili greeting and in political slogans alike. In Arabic itself, a different formation from the same root gave أماني, the plural of "a wish," used as a girl's name across the Middle East and North Africa. Amani reached American records in the later twentieth century by both of those doors at once, and has held a modest, unbroken place ever since.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Peace" in Swahili; "wishes, aspirations" in Arabic
Swahili amani means peace or calm, borrowed long ago from Arabic amān, "safety, security." Separately, Arabic أماني (amānī) is the plural of umniya, "a wish" — a long-established feminine name in Arabic-speaking countries. Both readings are solid in their own languages; which one a family means depends on where the name reached them. The shared root ʼ-m-n, carrying the sense of trust and security, sits under both.
How the name formed
- amānArabic, "safety"
- amaniSwahili, "peace"
- Amani
Related forms: Amani · أماني · Amany · Iman · Amina · Aman
Pronouncing Amani
ah-MAH-nee
Stress on the middle syllable in both Swahili and Arabic. Some American speakers say uh-MAH-nee with a lighter first vowel; both are widely accepted. The main mishearing is Armani, the Italian surname and fashion label, so the name is sometimes repeated once on the phone.
Nicknames for Amani
High
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
- 1969
- Most girls named
- 2008529 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #553reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −9.7%419 in 2025, from 464
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.
Amani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Amani in Swahili — same name
- أماني in Arabic — transliteration
- Amany in Arabic — spelling variant
- Iman in Arabic — related form
- Amina in Arabic — related form
- Aman in Arabic — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Amanis among us
people named Amani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,836 born in 2025 was named Amani
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Chantal test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chantal climbed just as high around 1990, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chantal's path sketches the road Amani is walking now.
Amani 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
Where Amani is headed
Amani should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Amani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds and read correctly by most English speakers on sight, with no silent letters and no competing spellings to correct.
- A real, current word for peace in Swahili — a meaning that can be explained in three words to a child or a stranger.
- At home in Arabic, Swahili and English alike, which matters in a family that spans more than one of them.
- Decades on American records without a fashion spike, so it reads as neither dated nor newly minted.
- Several natural short forms already in use — Mani, Ami, Nani — rather than none at all.
- Imani is considerably more familiar in the US, and Amani gets corrected to it fairly often — in email, on rosters, by teachers reading a list aloud. One extra beat of clarification, for life.
- The name is given to boys as well as girls, particularly in Arabic- and Swahili-speaking communities and in American sports; a girl named Amani will occasionally be assumed male on paper.
- Armani is the closest sound-alike in American ears, so expect the label joke once or twice in the school years.
- A child is unlikely to share the name with a classmate, which cuts both ways: no need for a last-initial, but also no one else who already knows how to say it.
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What they receive
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Amani
Feminine · Arabic roots · #678 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Amani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Amani in 2025?
- Amani ranks #678 among US girl names in 2025, with 419 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amani?
- About 1 in every 3,836 US girls born in 2025 was named Amani — 419 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amani with classmates?
- Amani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jenna#679 · Rosalina#680 · Alondra#680 · Whitley#675 · Lillie#675 · Aliza#675 · Ellis#682 · Laney#673
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amani? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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