Name Awesome

Imam

Boys' name

Leader, example, exemplar, paragon, through إِمَام

Imam has been given to 24 babies in the U.S. since 2001. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 2001, with 7 recorded.

Babies named Imam, 2017

1 in 715,000

Imam over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0246818801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Imam: meaning, origin, and history

Leader, example, exemplar, paragon, through إِمَام

Arabic

What Imam means

Imam belongs to the name family reached through Imam → إِمَام. Its meaning is “leader, example, exemplar, paragon”.

Origin, language, and formation

Imam is used in Indonesian. Its origins include Arabic.

Imam comes through Arabic إِمَام.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include إِمَام.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 24 boys were recorded with the name Imam between 2001 and 2017. Its highest annual count was 7 in 2001; its best national rank was #8,637 in 2001.

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 Imam?

Imam had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2017, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2017
1 in 715,000
5 of 3,577,106 births
Among boys only
1 in 370,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2017
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
495,893 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Imam sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2017 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 495,893 children born in 2017 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Imam. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Imams were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Imam was born before 2005 — so the typical Imam is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
79.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
100.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
24
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 79.2% of all recorded uses (19).

Is Imam 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
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 2001 (7)
Years since peak
24
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#8,637
2001

Spellings of Imam

Imam is not the most common spelling — Adam is, with 30.4% against Imam's <0.01%.

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.

Imam around the world

Where Imam 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
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • France
    1987–2025
    #2,439
    in 2025

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

Imam by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#8,637
2001
Peak year
2001
7 that year
First recorded
2001
Last recorded
2017
All-time count
24
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Imam

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

ImarImaanImaadImadImamuImageImarionImanHammamImauriImariImaniImanolIshmamImanuel

Sibling names for Imam

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 Imam

Top names of 2001, Imam's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2001Boys' names starting with IIndonesian Boy Names