Amirah
Feminine · Arabic roots · “princess”
Amirah is the Arabic word for princess, written the careful way — that final h stands for the Arabic feminine ending, so it is a spelling that carries its grammar with it. The same root gave English two words already in the dictionary: emir, and, through amīr al-baḥr, "commander of the sea," the word admiral. Said aloud it is three open syllables with the stress in the middle, easy to hear across a playground.
How old is the name Amirah?
Amirah first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Amirah is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 11,000 people named Amirah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amirah most popular?
Amirah peaked in 2023, reaching #458 nationally. Today it ranks #490, 32 places below that high. See the whole 2023 chart.
Where it comes from
From amīr (Arabic, "commander, prince") to Amirah
The story of Amirah
The masculine amīr has been a title of rank and command since the earliest centuries of Islamic history — amīr al-muʾminīn, Commander of the Faithful, was borne by caliphs from the seventh century onward — and amīrah is its feminine, the ordinary Arabic word for a princess. As a given name it is used across the Arabic-speaking world and far beyond it, including widely in Malaysia and Indonesia. The h at the end is not decoration: it renders the tāʾ marbūṭa, the letter that marks feminine nouns in Arabic, which is why careful transliterations keep it and casual ones drop it. Both spellings, Amirah and Amira, reached the United States with Muslim families and now travel together on the charts, strongest along the coasts and in the big immigrant cities.
Meaning
princess
Amirah is the feminine of Arabic amīr, "commander, prince," from the root ʾ-m-r, "to command." Worth knowing separately: Hebrew has its own name Amira, usually spelled without the h, connected to words for a sheaf of grain and the top of a tree. Same sound, different road.
How the name formed
- amīrArabic, "commander, prince"
- amīrah"princess"
- Amira
- Amirah
Related forms: أميرة · Amira · Ameera · Amirah · Amira · Amira
Pronouncing Amirah
ah-MEE-rah
The final h is silent — it marks the Arabic feminine ending rather than a sound. In American English you will also hear uh-MEER-uh, with the last syllable softened; both are in ordinary use, so it is worth deciding early which one your family says.
Nicknames for Amirah
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
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 2024678 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #458reached in 2023
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%603 in 2025, from 678
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.
Amirah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- أميرة in Arabic — transliteration
- Amira in English — spelling variant
- Ameera in English — spelling variant
- Amirah in Malay/Indonesian — same name
- Amira in Bosnian — same name
- Amira in Swahili — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Florida.
Amirahs among us
people named Amirah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,665 born in 2025 was named Amirah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Amirah
- #490
- Amirah on the 2025 chart
- #95
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Amirah went to 603 girls in 2025, but Amira, Amyra and Amyrah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 11 spellings went to 3,114, which makes it the 95th most-given girls’ name of the year — 395 places above the chart.
and 6 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 516 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,665 for Amirah 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 Adrianne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amirah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Adrianne climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Adrianne's path sketches the road Amirah is walking now.
Amirah 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 Amirah is headed
Amirah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 18% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Amirah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amirah 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 transparent to Arabic speakers worldwide — no explaining needed across a very large part of the globe.
- Ready-made short forms that already exist as names on their own: Mira, Amy.
- Used across Arabic, Malay, Indonesian, Bosnian and Swahili-speaking communities, so it travels without being reshaped.
- Sounds are all common in English — no consonant cluster or vowel an American ear has to work at.
- Amirah and Amira compete as spellings, and neither is rare. Expect to spell it out, and expect the h to be dropped by people writing it down quickly.
- It sits in a crowded sound-neighborhood with Amira, Amina, Amara, Amaya and Samira. Mix-ups are more likely than mispronunciations.
- The name is centuries old, but its American wave is recent — most people carrying this spelling here are still young, so US namesakes of an older generation are few. Elsewhere it has a much longer local history.
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Amirah
Feminine · Arabic roots · #490 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amirahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Amirah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Amirah?
- Amirah is one of 5 recorded spellings. Amira is the more common one — 2,168 births in 2025 against 603 for Amirah.
- How popular is the name Amirah in 2025?
- Amirah ranks #490 among US girl names in 2025, with 603 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amirah?
- About 1 in every 2,665 US girls born in 2025 was named Amirah — 603 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amirah with classmates?
- Amirah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amirah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Miracle#490 · Kora#490 · Aubree#489 · Brooklynn#488 · Cameron#487 · Amanda#493 · Arlette#494 · Aniyah#485
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amirah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amirah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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