9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data Italiano

Imani vs Evelyn

How Imani and Evelyn compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Imani

Female · English

Meaning: Faith (One Of The Seven Principles Of Kwanzaa)

Evelyn

Female · Celtic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Imani (girls) vs Evelyn (girls), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Imani Evelyn
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 1,051 girls 1921 — 14,278 girls
Peak rank #304 #12
Most recent rank (2025) #579 (512 births) #8 (9,123 births)
Total US births since 1880 19,020 555,984
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 5,882 97,423

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Evelyn reached 14,278 US births in 1921 — 13,227 more than Imani's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name list.

Imani — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 District of Columbia #211 18
2 Georgia #279 358
3 Louisiana #306 153
4 Mississippi #324 92
5 South Carolina #361 137

Evelyn — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Minnesota #3 2,360
2 Wisconsin #3 2,223
3 Oregon #4 1,348
4 Iowa #4 1,220
5 Idaho #4 719

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →