Amar
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · “Immortal”
Amar is given to both — 4,989 boys and 345 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Amar is one of those short names that several unrelated languages arrived at independently — Sanskrit, Arabic and Hebrew each have their own Amar, and Spanish and Portuguese speakers will hear their everyday verb for "to love". Five letters, two syllables, no silent parts and nothing to spell twice. It has been carried in South Asia since at least the sixteenth century, when Guru Amar Das led the Sikh community.
How old is the name Amar?
Amar first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Amar alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 4,900 people named Amar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amar most popular?
Amar peaked in 2003, reaching #1103 nationally. Today it ranks #1388, 285 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From amara (Sanskrit, "deathless") to Amar
The story of Amar
The Sanskrit branch is the oldest traceable: amara, "deathless," a word of the classical language that became a given name in Hindi and Punjabi and the first element of compounds like Amarjit and Amardeep. Guru Amar Das, the third of the Sikh Gurus, carried it in sixteenth-century Punjab. The Arabic branch runs on its own track from the root ʿ-m-r, giving ʿAmmār and the shortened Amar that is now one of the most familiar boys' names in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The two lines never merged; they simply met on the page in English, where South Asian, Arab, Bosnian and Jewish families all now spell it the same way.
Meaningscholars disagree
"Immortal, undying" in the Sanskrit-derived line; "long-lived, thriving" in the Arabic one
Two strong readings, from two separate roots. In Hindi and Punjabi, amar comes from Sanskrit a- ("not") plus the root mṛ ("to die") — immortal, deathless. In Arabic, Amar sits with ʿAmmār, from the root ʿ-m-r, which carries ideas of long life, flourishing and building up; this is the form common in Bosnia and across the Muslim world. Separately, Amar is a well-established surname among Moroccan and Sephardi Jewish families. Which one applies depends entirely on the family, not on the spelling.
How the name formed
- amaraSanskrit, "deathless"
- AmarHindi, Punjabi
- Amarjit, Amardeep, AmarpreetPunjabi compounds
Related forms: عمار (ʿAmmār) · Amar · अमर · ਅਮਰ · Ammar · עמר
Pronouncing Amar
uh-MAR
Most common in American English as uh-MAR, rhyming with "guitar." Bosnian and Arabic speakers stress the first syllable, AH-mar; Hindi and Punjabi speakers land somewhere near UH-mur, with a lighter final r. All are correct within their own community, and a family can simply state its preference once.
Nicknames for Amar
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
- 1967
- Most boys named
- 2023178 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1103reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −17.5%132 in 2025, from 160
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.
Amar in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- عمار (ʿAmmār) in Arabic — related form
- Amar in Bosnian — same name
- अमर in Hindi — transliteration
- ਅਮਰ in Punjabi — transliteration
- Ammar in Turkish — related form
- עמר in Hebrew — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Florida.
Amars among us
people named Amar are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 12,940 born in 2025 was named Amar
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Amar
- #1388
- Amar on the 2025 chart
- #637
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Amar went to 132 boys in 2025, but Ammar, Amaar and Amarr are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 307, which makes it the 637th most-given boys’ name of the year — 751 places above the chart.
- Ammar161
- Amar132
- Amaar9
- Amarr5
About 1 boy in 5,564 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 12,940 for Amar 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
The Antron test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amar's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Antron climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Antron's path sketches the road Amar is walking now.
Amar 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 Amar is headed
Amar should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Amar beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amar in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters, phonetic, and hard to misspell once heard — no double consonants, no silent endings.
- Already short, so it needs no nickname to work in daily use, and takes one only if a family wants it.
- Genuinely usable across Arabic-, Bosnian-, Hindi-, Punjabi- and Hebrew-speaking settings, with a recognized written form in each.
- Long documented use in South Asia, including Guru Amar Das in the sixteenth century.
- An unbroken presence in American records across decades rather than a recent arrival.
- It sits close to Amir, Omar, Amara and Ammar, and will be misheard as one of them fairly often — usually corrected in a breath, but expect the correction to be a regular event.
- The stress moves between communities: uh-MAR in most American mouths, AH-mar in Bosnian and Arabic. Neither is wrong, but a child may hear both versions of their own name in the same week.
- In Spanish and Portuguese, amar is the ordinary verb "to love." Some families like that overlap; it is worth knowing it exists before someone points it out.
- Because three unrelated origins share the spelling, people will guess at the family's background from the name and guess wrong about as often as right.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Amar to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Amar? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Amar
Masculine · Sanskrit roots · #1388 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amars are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Amar are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Amar?
- Amar is one of 4 recorded spellings. Ammar is the more common one — 161 births in 2025 against 132 for Amar.
- How popular is the name Amar in 2025?
- Amar ranks #1388 among US boy names in 2025, with 132 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amar?
- About 1 in every 12,940 US boys born in 2025 was named Amar — 132 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amar with classmates?
- Amar will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amar
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Anton#1388 · Graysen#1388 · Tyrone#1388 · Lyric#1388 · Jules#1393 · Aariv#1393 · Scout#1393 · Aviel#1393
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amar? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amar and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle