Imani
Imani was given to 512 girls in 2025, #579 among girls’ names; 29,212 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 28,800 Americans named Imani and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 12 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Imani by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Imani mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Imani is “a female given name from Swahili.” Its etymology gives the sense “faith, belief” (imani).
Borrowed from Swahili, from imani (“faith, belief”), from Arabic إِيمَان (ʔīmān).
/ɪˈmɑni/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Imani?
#579 among girls’ names, 2025
Imani fell from #533 in 2015 to #579 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.33 to 0.32 per 1,000.
1,272 babies in 1998, the peak
Imani peaked in 1998, when 1,272 babies were given it (1,222 girls, #253 among girls’ names). The 553 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 43% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 512 | #579 | 0.32 |
| 2024 | 585 | #526 | 0.36 |
| 2023 | 647 | #476 | 0.40 |
| 2022 | 627 | #504 | 0.38 |
| 2021 | 583 | #530 | 0.36 |
| 2020 | 580 | #522 | 0.36 |
| 2019 | 597 | #521 | 0.36 |
| 2018 | 607 | #516 | 0.36 |
| 2017 | 573 | #541 | 0.33 |
| 2016 | 577 | #541 | 0.33 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 585 | #533 | 0.33 |
| 2014 | 626 | #500 | 0.35 |
| 2013 | 630 | #482 | 0.36 |
| 2012 | 807 | #387 | 0.46 |
| 2011 | 809 | #392 | 0.46 |
| 2010 | 861 | #372 | 0.48 |
| 2009 | 774 | #411 | 0.42 |
| 2008 | 841 | #384 | 0.44 |
| 2007 | 845 | #388 | 0.44 |
| 2006 | 785 | #405 | 0.41 |
| 2005 | 757 | #412 | 0.41 |
| 2004 | 801 | #388 | 0.44 |
| 2003 | 954 | #328 | 0.52 |
| 2002 | 968 | #318 | 0.54 |
| 2001 | 1,047 | #300 | 0.58 |
| 2000 | 1,051 | #304 | 0.58 |
| 1999 | 1,035 | #299 | 0.58 |
| 1998 | 1,222 | #253 | 0.69 |
| 1997 | 1,185 | #248 | 0.68 |
| 1996 | 1,171 | #239 | 0.67 |
| 1995 | 1,034 | #266 | 0.59 |
| 1994 | 905 | #303 | 0.51 |
| 1993 | 541 | #468 | 0.30 |
| 1992 | 427 | #552 | 0.23 |
| 1991 | 288 | #723 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 203 | #934 | 0.11 |
| 1989 | 127 | #1,242 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 76 | #1,691 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 48 | #2,246 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 48 | #2,177 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 36 | #2,673 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 32 | #2,802 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 42 | #2,283 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 40 | #2,420 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 36 | #2,579 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 37 | #2,550 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 32 | #2,749 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 36 | #2,446 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 31 | #2,687 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 25 | #2,954 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,904 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 32 | #2,409 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 29 | #2,528 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 21 | #3,102 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 15 | #4,012 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,550 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Imani a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 29,212 Americans recorded as Imani, 95% are girls and 5% boys. In 2025 it went to 512 girls and 41 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Imani: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Imani, and how old are they?
28,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 29,212 Americans ever recorded as Imani. The median Imani alive today is 21 years old; half are between 12 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 21,080 people named Imani (20,111 women and girls, 969 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 25,286 born in the U.S. The Census count is 17% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 353 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,260 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 15,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,140 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Imani born?
The states with the most babies named Imani are Texas, Florida and California, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 77 | #467 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 45 | #419 | 1.1× |
| California | 42 | #741 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 36 | #285 | 1.7× |
| New York | 26 | #641 | 1.8× |
| North Carolina | 25 | #446 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #666 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 15 | #638 | 1.1× |
| Maryland | 15 | #366 | 1.9× |
| Louisiana | 15 | #313 | 1.3× |
Where Imani is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Imani is most over-represented in District of Columbia: since 1970 it was given 3.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Imani with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 30,735 babies since 1880, Imani is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 553 of their 589 babies (94%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Imani
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Imani and names like it
- Compare Imani and ImoniBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sImani peaked in 1998.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Imani since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Imani.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Imani alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with IMost given first.