Mosi
Mosi was last recorded in 2022, when 10 babies were given it; 116 Americans have been recorded with it between 1973 and 2022 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Mosi by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Mosi mean?
Wiktionary, Swahili section
Mosi is “a unisex given name (traditionally used for the eldest child)” Its etymology gives the sense “number one” (mosi).
From mosi (“number one”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, Swahili section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Mosi?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #8,114, in 2022; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
13 babies in 1974, the peak
Mosi peaked in 1974, when 13 babies were given it (8 boys, #4,068 among boys’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10 | #8,114 | 5.7 |
| 2021 | 9 | #8,611 | 5.1 |
| 2019 | 5 | #13,493 | 2.8 |
| 2018 | 8 | #9,382 | 4.4 |
| 2017 | 6 | #11,729 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 5 | #13,566 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 5 | #13,425 | 2.6 |
| 2009 | 6 | #11,987 | 3.0 |
| 2007 | 6 | #11,885 | 2.9 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,187 | 4.1 |
Every recorded year (15)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 7 | #4,942 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 10 | #3,636 | 6.4 |
| 1975 | 7 | #4,636 | 4.5 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,068 | 5.1 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,895 | 3.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Mosi a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 116 Americans recorded as Mosi, 9% are girls and 91% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Mosi: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Mosi, and how old are they?
An estimated 111 Americans named Mosi and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 8 and 50. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 239 people named Mosi (64 women and girls, 175 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 94 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Mosi rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,893 babies since 1880, Mosi is the seventh most given (1.1% of them). In 2025 none of their 129 babies recorded by SSA was a Mosi (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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.
More about Mosi and names like it
- Compare Mosi and MoseBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sMosi peaked in 1974.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Mosi.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Mosi alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with MMost given first.