About Amina
Amina represents two closely related Arabic names: Āmina, associated with being safe or secure, and Amīna, the feminine form of Amin, associated with trustworthiness. Both are widely used beyond Arabic-speaking countries. The name connects early Islamic history with African traditions and modern international public service.
Two Arabic forms
Āmina, written آمنة, has a long first vowel. It was the name of the Prophet Muhammad's mother, who died while he was young. The related form Amīna, written أمينة, has a short first vowel and a long second vowel.
Both belong to an Arabic root associated with security and faithfulness. In Roman letters they can share the spelling Amina, while spellings such as Aamina and Aminah sometimes make one form easier to recognize.
The distinction affects pronunciation: Āmina is approximately AH-mi-na, while Amīna is ah-MEE-na. Arabic begins both with a glottal onset, and the stressed long vowels help distinguish the forms.
Amina is also established in languages including Urdu, Bosnian, Swahili, Hausa, Chechen, and several Central Asian languages. Amin is the corresponding masculine relative of Amīna.
Amina of Zazzau
Amina is the name of the celebrated ruler associated with Zazzau, a Hausa kingdom in what is now northern Nigeria. Traditions remember her as a military leader who expanded the kingdom's power.
The surviving accounts disagree about when she ruled, placing her in different parts of the fifteenth or sixteenth century. That uncertainty is substantial, but her place in the historical memory of the Hausa region is enduring.
Her story has also entered modern film. The Nigerian production Amina, released in 2021, reimagines her life and has prompted discussion about how cinema presents the history of precolonial African states.
Amina J. Mohammed
Nigerian public official Amina J. Mohammed took office as United Nations deputy secretary-general in February 2017. She had previously served as Nigeria's environment minister, working on climate action and protection of natural resources.
She first joined the United Nations in 2012 as a special adviser on development planning after 2015. Her work helped shape the process leading to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The career links Amina with environmental policy and international development. It is a contemporary public-service association alongside the much older religious and historical connections carried by the name.
American popularity
Amina's American female birth count rose from 215 in 2000 to 403 in 2010. Its largest recorded total came in 2017, with 1,180 births and a rank of No. 271.
In 2025, 970 girls received Amina, ranked No. 315. The name remained far more widely given than around the turn of the century, although below its 2017 birth-count high.
Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution
Existing Wiktionary material is attributed under CC BY-SA 4.0 where applicable. Popularity figures use the local Social Security Administration exact-spelling series; name-sex-year counts below five are omitted.
- Wiktionary: Amina (English)
- Wiktionary: Amina (Hausa)
- Wiktionary: Amina (Uzbek)
- Wiktionary: أَمِينَة
- SSA national name data
- Wikidata: Amina J. Mohammed
- Wikidata: Amina Wadud
- Wikidata: Amina Bouayach
- Wikidata: Amina Okueva
- Wikidata: Queen Amina
- Wikidata: Amina Tyler
- Wikidata: Amina Lawal
- Wikidata: Amina Annabi
- Sankofa scholarly study
- UN deputy secretary-general biography
Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
How popular is Amina?
In 2025, Amina ranked #315 among girls in the United States, with 970 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for girls in 1943; its largest annual count was 1,180 in 2017. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.