girl's name
Amanda
a-MAN-da
- Origin Latin
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 3
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 834,919
the United States
#493
2025 births
Amanda is a girl's name from the Latin for she who must be loved, and one of the few names on this site that can be dated to a specific literary invention — Colley Cibber used it for a character in his 1696 play Love's Last Shift.
- Amanda is a name of Latin origin.
- Peaked in 1987, when 41,909 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 5,516 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 3 syllables, with the stress on syllable 2.
Amanda over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 3,280 |
| 1890s | 3,877 |
| 1900s | 2,923 |
| 1910s | 3,643 |
| 1920s | 3,125 |
| 1930s | 1,965 |
| 1940s | 2,759 |
| 1950s | 5,476 |
| 1960s | 17,227 |
| 1970s | 124,362 |
| 1980s | 370,884 |
| 1990s | 191,521 |
| 2000s | 46,742 |
| 2010s | 11,086 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 3,904 |
What Amanda means
Amanda means she who must be loved, or worthy of love. The Latin is a gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the sense is not merely lovable but requiring to be loved.
Where Amanda comes from
Amanda is the feminine gerundive of the Latin amare, to love — literally she who is to be loved, a grammatical form that expresses necessity rather than description. Latin used gerundives freely and Amandus existed as a name in late antiquity, but Amanda as a modern given name has a documented starting point: Colley Cibber gave it to a character in Love's Last Shift in 1696, and Vanbrugh reused her the following year in The Relapse. Restoration playwrights liked transparently meaningful Latin names for virtuous characters, and this one escaped the stage and became real, which very few of them did.
Amanda in use
Amanda peaked in the United States in 1987, when 41,909 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 493rd in the United States on 601 births, 696th in Ireland, 749th in France and 993rd in England and Wales, across 834,919 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. Its peak places it with Justin, Stephanie and Brandon in the later wave rather than with the mid-century cluster.
How popular is Amanda?
In 2025, Amanda was given to 601 babies in the United States, ranking #493 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Amanda is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Amanda
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Amanda also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Amanda over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Amanda
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Amanda in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Amanda
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Amanda — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Amanda
What does the name Amanda mean?
She who must be loved — a Latin gerundive expressing obligation, not just lovability.
Who invented the name Amanda?
Colley Cibber used it for a character in his 1696 play Love's Last Shift, and it entered real use from there.
Is Mandy short for Amanda?
Yes, and it has also been used as a name in its own right.
How popular is Amanda?
493rd in the United States, down from a 1987 peak of 41,909 births.
Is Amanda a girl's or a boy's name?
Amanda is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Amanda?
Amanda has 3 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Amanda?
Amanda is usually shortened to Mandy and Manda.
Is Amanda a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Amanda currently ranks #493 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.