Mina
Masculine
Mina is given to both — 672 boys and 19,267 girls since 1880. See Mina as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Mina on a boy is almost always Coptic. Saint Menas is one of the most venerated saints of the Egyptian church, his shrine outside Alexandria was among the great pilgrimage sites of the ancient Mediterranean, and Mina is an ordinary Coptic men's name to this day. Its American record follows Egyptian Christian migration, and it peaks in 1987.
How old is the name Mina?
Mina first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Mina alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 700 people named Mina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mina most popular?
Mina peaked in 1987, reaching #2838 nationally. Today it ranks #5861, 3,023 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Menas to Mina
The story of Mina
Menas of Egypt was a Roman soldier martyred around 309 and became the most popular saint of Egyptian Christianity; the pilgrimage city that grew around his tomb at Abu Mena was enormous, and small clay flasks stamped with his image have been found across the Mediterranean world. Coptic naming has preserved a distinct stock of names through fourteen centuries of Muslim rule, and Mina is among the most common men's names in it. Egyptian Christian migration to the United States grew substantially from the 1960s, particularly to New Jersey, California and Illinois, and the American record for Mina on boys follows it.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The saint's name, Menas in Greek and Mina in Coptic and Arabic, has no settled etymology. It has been connected to the Egyptian royal name Menes, to a Greek word for month, and to several other roots, none demonstrably. Separately, Mina is a common women's name in Europe as a short form of Wilhelmina and Hermine, and in Japan and Persian-speaking countries it is a women's name from other sources entirely. Those are different names sharing four letters.
How the name formed
- Menas
- Mina
Related forms: Mina · Menas · Mina
Pronouncing Mina
MEE-nah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long e and an open final a. English speakers sometimes say MY-nah, giving the i its English name, which is the main variation heard.
Nicknames for Mina
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
- 1980
- Most boys named
- 201631 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2838reached in 1987
- Change vs 2024
- +15.4%15 in 2025, from 13
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.
Mina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mina in Coptic — same name
- Menas in Greek — related form
- Mina in Arabic — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New Jersey, Tennessee.
Minas among us
people named Mina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 113,872 born in 2025 was named Mina
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 Alfard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alfard climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alfard's path sketches the road Mina is walking now.
Mina 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
Mina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is short, soft and easy to say in a great many languages.
- It carries a fourteen-hundred-year Coptic tradition rather than a modern fashion.
- The spelling is identical across Coptic, Arabic and English transliteration.
- In American use the same spelling is far more often a woman's name.
- Two vowel readings circulate, MEE-nah and MY-nah.
- The saint's own name has no established etymology.
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What they receive
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Mina
Masculine · #5861 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Minas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Mina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mina in 2025?
- Mina ranks #5861 among US boy names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mina?
- About 1 in every 113,872 US boys born in 2025 was named Mina — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mina with classmates?
- Mina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eber#5861 · Wilton#5861 · Ruby#5861 · Stacy#5861 · Garner#5861 · Caldwell#5861 · Severin#5861 · Newton#5861
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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