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Fatou

#2,968 in 2025Girls' name

Short form of Fatoumata

Fatou has been given to 1,223 babies in the U.S. since 1991. In 2025 it ranked #2,968 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2025, with 56 recorded.

Babies named Fatou, 2025

1 in 59,200

Fatou over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Fatou: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Fatoumata

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Fatou means

Fatou is a short form of Fatoumata.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Fatoumata.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,223 girls were recorded with the name Fatou between 1991 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 56 in 2025; its best national rank was #2,899 in 2003.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #3,800 in 2020 to #2,968 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #3,870 in 2015 to #2,968 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Fatou?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 59,200
56 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 28,700
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#2,968
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
41,035 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Fatou sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 41,035 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Fatou. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Fatous were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Fatou was born before 2010 — so the typical Fatou is around 15 today.

Median birth year
2010
About 15 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
35.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
82.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,223
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 35.1% of all recorded uses (429).

Is Fatou rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+18
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
+832
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+902
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.44×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
100.0%
Peak was 2025 (56)
Years since peak
Peaking now
At its all-time high
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,899
2003

Spellings of Fatou

Fatou is not the most common spelling — Falon is, with 43.5% against Fatou's 26.8%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Fatou is used

Across 1910–2025, Fatou was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 94,592 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 33,333
  2. 2Maryland1 in 50,000
  3. 3Georgia1 in 100,000
  4. 4Illinois1 in —
  5. 5Michigan1 in —
  6. 6North Carolina1 in —
  7. 7New Jersey1 in —
  8. 8Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Fatou has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Fatou around the world

Where Fatou ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #4,867
    in 2025
  • France
    1958–2025
    #347
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1996–2024
    #1,854
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Fatou by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#2,968
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 832
Best rank ever
#2,899
2003
Peak year
2025
56 that year
First recorded
1991
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,223
Count in 2025
56

Names similar to Fatou

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

FatmaFatemaFatumaFatenFatimatouFatihaFatimahBintouFatmataIsatouFatinaAstouFatimataFatoumataAissatouFatimFatumataFateKadiatouFatimaFatinFathimaFatimeFatemah

Sibling names for Fatou

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Fatou

Top names of 2025, Fatou's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2003Girls' names starting with F