Humanverse

Imagene vs Imani

American parents have registered 29,212 Imanis since 1880, against 547 Imagenes. Imani is still ahead, with 553 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Imagene against Imani, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Imagene Imani

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 92 years in which either name was published, Imani for 56 years and Imagene for 36 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Imagene Imani
Total US births 54729,212
Most in one year 321,272
Babies in 2025 under 5553
Estimated living today 11029,000
Median age today 8420
Peak year 19281998
Best rank 1,366th girls253rd girls
Rank in 2025 unranked579th
First recorded 19151970
Girls / boys 547 / 027,817 / 1,395

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Imagenes alive today are over 84; half the Imanis are over 20. That is 64 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Imagene and Imani.