Imani
Masculine · “faith”
Imani is given to both — 1,395 boys and 27,817 girls since 1880. See Imani as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Imani is faith, and it arrived in Swahili from Arabic — which is true of a great deal of Swahili, a language built on a Bantu grammar with an enormous Arabic vocabulary laid over it by centuries of Indian Ocean trade.
How old is the name Imani?
Imani first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Imani alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,400 people named Imani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Imani most popular?
Imani peaked in 1996, reaching #1764 nationally. Today it ranks #2991, 1,227 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Where it comes from
From iman to Imani
The story of Imani
Imani is the seventh principle of Kwanzaa, the last of the seven named across the holiday — faith in one's people, family and the rightness of the struggle — and that is how the name entered African-American use in the nineteen-seventies. It is also an ordinary Swahili word and name in East Africa, used for both sexes. In the United States it is given far more often to daughters than to sons, which is the reverse of the Arabic Iman, itself usually a woman's name.
Meaning
faith
Swahili imani means faith or belief, and it is a borrowing from Arabic iman, which means the same thing and is one of the central terms in Islamic teaching. The reading is documented in both languages. Swahili took a very large share of its abstract vocabulary from Arabic through the coastal trade, and this is one of the clearer examples.
How the name formed
- iman
- imani
- Imani
Related forms: Imani · Iman · İman
Pronouncing Imani
ee-MAH-nee
Three syllables with the stress in the middle and clean open vowels throughout — Swahili has no reduced vowels. American English sometimes says ih-MAN-ee, which flattens the middle.
Nicknames for Imani
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
- 1972
- Most boys named
- 202158 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1764reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −10.9%41 in 2025, from 46
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.
Imani in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Imani in Swahili — same name
- Iman in Arabic — related form
- İman in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Michigan.
Imanis among us
people named Imani are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 41,660 born in 2025 was named Imani
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 Jenny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Imani's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jenny climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jenny's path sketches the road Imani is walking now.
Imani 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 Imani is headed
Imani 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.
Imani beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Imani in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An exact documented meaning in two languages, and a warm one.
- Five letters, entirely phonetic, and said nearly correctly by English speakers at first sight.
- Used for both sexes in East Africa, so it carries no strong expectation there.
- In the United States it is given to daughters far more often, so a son will be read as one on paper.
- Imani and Iman are related but separate and get confused.
- The middle vowel is often flattened in American speech, which changes the rhythm.
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What they receive
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Imani
Masculine · #2991 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Imanis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Imani are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Imani in 2025?
- Imani ranks #2991 among US boy names in 2025, with 41 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Imani?
- About 1 in every 41,660 US boys born in 2025 was named Imani — 41 in all.
- Will my child share the name Imani with classmates?
- Imani will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Imani
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roran#2991 · Izaak#2991 · Nyle#2991 · Levin#2991 · Tilden#2991 · Hanson#2991 · Breck#2991 · Oswaldo#2991
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Imani? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Imani and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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