Amy
Feminine · “loved”
Amy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 701,631 girls against 1,853 boys since 1880. See Amy as a boy name
One of the great unsolved scandals of the English sixteenth century turns on a woman with this name. She was found at the bottom of a staircase with a broken neck in an empty house, her husband was the queen's favorite and was widely believed to want to marry the queen, and the inquest returned an accident that almost nobody believed.
How old is the name Amy?
Amy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Amy alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 645,000 people named Amy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Amy most popular?
Amy peaked in 1973, reaching #2 nationally. Today it ranks #257, 255 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Where it comes from
From Amata to Amy
The story of Amy
A fictional woman with the name has spent a century and a half being disliked on purpose. In the novel about four sisters she is the youngest, the vain one, the one who burns her sister's manuscript out of spite and later marries the man readers wanted for somebody else — and she is written to be irritating in a way the others are not. Recent readings have been kinder, pointing out that she is the only one who is clear-eyed about money and marriage in a book where clear-sightedness about either is the difference between security and disaster. She was right and the readers were annoyed.
Meaning
loved
From a French participle. It states that the person is loved rather than describing a quality they have, which is a distinction the English form has entirely lost.
How the name formed
- Amata
- Amée
- Amy
Related forms: Aimée · Amata
Pronouncing Amy
AY-mee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The French original has three letters more and an accent, and says roughly the same thing.
Nicknames for Amy
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 197532,254 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2reached in 1973
- Change vs 2022
- −15.2%1,200 in 2025, from 1,415
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.
Amy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aimée in French — same name
- Amata in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Amys among us
people named Amy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,339 born in 2025 was named Amy
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 Barbara test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Amy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Barbara climbed just as high around 1937, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Barbara's path sketches the road Amy is walking now.
Amy peaked long ago yet still holds steady — names that survive their own wave usually settle into quiet, durable classics.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Amy is headed
Amy 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.
Amy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Amy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, warm and instantly familiar everywhere.
- The meaning is straightforwardly affectionate and easy to explain.
- The spelling is three letters and never needs repeating.
- Its peak was very large and very recent, which dates the name to a decade.
- Aimee and Ami both appear and the spelling occasionally gets queried.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Amy to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Amy
Feminine · #257 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Amys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 645,000 people named Amy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Amy in 2025?
- Amy ranks #257 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,200 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Amy?
- About 1 in every 1,339 US girls born in 2025 was named Amy — 1,200 in all.
- Will my child share the name Amy with classmates?
- Amy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Amy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Journee#258 · Juliana#256 · Kaylee#255 · Leila#259 · Mariana#260 · Faith#254 · Adalyn#260 · Kailani#253
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Amy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Amy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
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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
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