Name Awesome

Ima

#12,399 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Emma

Ima has been given to 6,806 babies in the U.S. since 1886. In 2025 it ranked #12,399 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1927, with 232 recorded.

Babies named Ima, 2025

1 in 474,000

Ima over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ima: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Emma

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ima means

Ima is a variant of Emma.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ima is used in Germanic.

Origin, language, and formation

Ima is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Emma.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 6,806 girls were recorded with the name Ima between 1886 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 232 in 1927; its best national rank was #432 in 1894.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #14,108 in 2020 to #12,399 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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Ima?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 474,000
7 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 230,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#12,399
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
328,272 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Ima 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 328,272 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ima. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Imas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ima was born before 1928 — so the typical Ima is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
28.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
0.59%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
541
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 28.5% of all recorded uses (1,939).

Is Ima 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
+1,709
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
3.0%
Peak was 1927 (232)
Years since peak
98
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#432
1894

Where Ima is used

Across 1910–2025, Ima was most concentrated in Oklahoma — about 1 in 3,333 girls, against 1 in 21,252 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

030 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Oklahoma1 in 3,333
  2. 2Arkansas1 in 4,348
  3. 3Kentucky1 in 6,667
  4. 4Texas1 in 7,143
  5. 5Tennessee1 in 10,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 11,111
  7. 7Missouri1 in 25,000
  8. 8Georgia1 in 33,333

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. Ima has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Ima around the world

Where Ima 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
    1999–2024
    #2,772
    in 2024
  • France
    2006–2025
    #3,306
    in 2025
  • Canada
    2009–2013
    #2,555
    in 2013

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.

Notable people named Ima

People whose public names include Ima, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Ima in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Ima. Linked forms have their own page here.

AmaInaImmaInma

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Ima by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#12,399
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 1,709
Best rank ever
#432
1894
Peak year
1927
232 that year
First recorded
1886
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
6,806
Count in 2025
7

Names similar to Ima

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

ImanImariImaniNaimaSimaRimaImaanImaraBlimaHalimaImaneDimaJemimaKimaNimaKarimaImayaSaimaFatimaAlimaAimaMimaLimaSalima

Names with a curve like Ima

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Ima, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

VerlaArdisSybleDorthaDorrisOuidaLarueAleneMyrtisJaunitaLorineFlorene

Sibling names for Ima

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 Ima

Top names of 1927, Ima's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1894Girls' names starting with I