Amina
Feminine · Arabic roots · “trustworthy”
Amina comes from the Arabic root that gives words for safety, trust and being kept from harm — a root so central that its relatives are spoken every day from Morocco to Indonesia. In Islamic tradition it is the name of Āmina bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, and in Hausa history it belongs to Amina of Zazzau, the sixteenth-century queen. Three syllables, all open vowels, and no letter in it that anyone has to be taught.
How old is the name Amina?
Amina first appears in US birth records in 1943 — 82 years ago. The typical Amina is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 19,000 people named Amina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amina most popular?
Amina peaked in 2017, reaching #271 nationally. Today it ranks #315, 44 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Where it comes from
From Amīn (Arabic) to Amina
The story of Amina
The name is Arabic, the feminine of Amīn, and it was already in use in Mecca before Islam — Āmina bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet Muhammad, belongs to the sixth and seventh centuries. From there it traveled everywhere Islam traveled: across North Africa and into the Sahel, where it took Hausa forms like Aminatu; down the Swahili coast; north into Anatolia, where Arabic Āmina became Turkish Emine; and into Bosnia and Albania, where Amina and Emina are both long established. Each of those communities carried it separately into the United States, which is why the name arrives here from several directions at once rather than one.
Meaning
trustworthy, faithful; safe, secure
Both readings come from the same Arabic root, ʾ-m-n: amn is safety, amīn is one who can be trusted. Amīna is the feminine form, and the closely written Āmina carries the sense of being secure or at peace. Dictionaries usually give 'trustworthy' first.
How the name formed
- AmīnArabic
- Amīna
- Aminah
- Amina
Related forms: آمنة / أمينة (Aminah) · Emine · Emina · Aminatu · Amineh · Aamina
Pronouncing Amina
ah-MEE-nah
Stress on the middle syllable is the usual American reading. Turkish and Balkan speakers often stress the first syllable, AH-mee-nah, and in classical Arabic Āmina puts the weight at the front too. English speakers seeing it cold sometimes try uh-MY-nuh, which is worth correcting once and then forgetting.
Nicknames for Amina
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
- 1943
- Most girls named
- 20171,180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #271reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −3.3%970 in 2025, from 1,003
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.
Amina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- آمنة / أمينة (Aminah) in Arabic — same name
- Emine in Turkish — related form
- Emina in Bosnian — related form
- Aminatu in Hausa — related form
- Amineh in Persian — related form
- Aamina in Somali — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, California, Texas.
Aminas among us
people named Amina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,657 born in 2025 was named Amina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Amina
- #315
- Amina on the 2025 chart
- #266
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Amina went to 970 girls in 2025, but Aminah, Aamina and Aaminah are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,213, which makes it the 266th most-given girls’ name of the year — 49 places above the chart.
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 girl in 1,325 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,657 for Amina 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 Jenifer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenifer climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenifer's path sketches the road Amina is walking now.
Amina 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 Amina is headed
Amina 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.
Amina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized on sight across Arabic-speaking, Turkish, Balkan, West African, East African and South Asian communities — a genuinely international name, not a translated one.
- Spelled the way it sounds in English: no silent letters, no doubled consonants, nothing to dictate twice.
- Ready-made short forms already in real use — Mina, Ami, Nina — none of which have to be invented.
- Fourteen centuries of continuous documented use, and still being given to babies now.
- It shares the field with Aminah, Ameena, Amena, Emina and Emine, so 'which spelling?' will be a lifelong question — easy to answer, but asked often.
- Stress placement genuinely differs between communities. Within one extended family the name may be said two ways, and both are correct.
- In American classrooms she will most likely be the only one, which means the name is hers alone but also that teachers will meet it fresh each September.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Amina
Feminine · Arabic roots · #315 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aminas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 19,000 people named Amina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Amina?
- Amina is the most-used spelling in US records — 970 of the 1,213 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Aminah, Aamina and Aaminah.
- How popular is the name Amina in 2025?
- Amina ranks #315 among US girl names in 2025, with 970 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amina?
- About 1 in every 1,657 US girls born in 2025 was named Amina — 970 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amina with classmates?
- Amina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Colette#316 · Brooke#313 · Catherine#313 · Gabriela#317 · Morgan#312 · Frances#318 · Madisson#319 · Tessa#311
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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