Imari
Feminine · “The Japanese port”
Imari is given to both — 2,365 girls and 1,086 boys since 1880. See Imari as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Imari is a Japanese port and the porcelain that shipped from it, and it is also an American name of the 1990s and 2000s that may have nothing to do with either. The record holds both and does not choose.
How old is the name Imari?
Imari first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Imari alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 2,300 people named Imari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Imari most popular?
Imari peaked in 2001, reaching #1540 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 3,870 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Imari
There is a cluster here and it is worth laying out. Imani is Swahili for faith and one of the seven Kwanzaa principles, in American use since the 1970s. Amari appears in the 1990s and rises for both sexes with no documented source. Amara has a genuine Igbo reading and a separate Italian one. And Imari sits among them, sharing three of its five letters with each. Any of them could have suggested it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Imari is a real place with four hundred years of porcelain behind it, and the word has been in English since the eighteenth century as a term for a style of blue-and-red decoration. The American record cannot tell you which a family meant, and the honest account names the porcelain and the cluster and stops.
Meaningnot established
The Japanese port; otherwise unknown
Imari is a town in Saga prefecture on Kyushu, and Imari ware is the porcelain made at nearby Arita and exported through its harbor from the seventeenth century — a genuine and well documented word. Whether the American girls' name descends from it is not established; it appears in records alongside Amari, Imani and Amara, and may equally be a formation on that group. Imani, the Swahili for faith, is a separate name.
Pronouncing Imari
ih-MAR-ee
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Japanese Imari gives the three syllables even weight, which English does not reproduce.
Nicknames for Imari
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 2003124 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1540reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%23 in 2025, from 23
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.
Imari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 伊万里 in Japanese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Imaris among us
people named Imari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Imari
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 Janean test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Imari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janean climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janean's path sketches the road Imari is walking now.
Imari 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
Imari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Imari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Mari works as a short form and is a real name in several languages.
- Five letters and three open syllables are easy to say.
- It reads immediately as a name.
- There is no established meaning for the American name.
- Imari, Imani, Amari and Amara are close enough to be constantly confused.
- It is used for both sexes in the American record.
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What they receive
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Imari
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Imaris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Imari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Imari in 2025?
- Imari ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Imari?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Imari — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Imari with classmates?
- Imari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Imari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Kathia#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Imari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Imari and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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