Amina

Meaning of Amina

Amina—pronounced ah-MEE-nah, its vowels opening like a welcoming courtyard—springs from the Arabic root ʔ-m-n, the same linguistic soil that once yielded the classical Latin fides, both terms conjuring a landscape of trust, safety, and serene faith; little wonder, then, that the name has long been venerated from the Red Sea to the Swahili coast and, more recently, across the American continent, where it has climbed with the quiet persistence of a vine from a mere five recorded births in 1952 to a respectable 285th rank in 2024. Scholars cite Āmina bint Wahb—the gentle yet resolute mother of the Prophet Muḥammad—as the historical lodestar, her legacy endowing the name with an almost talismanic aura of maternal protection; meanwhile, modern bearers, whether Somali poets, Senegalese diplomats, or Chicago-born engineers, weave new threads into this rich textile. To choose Amina, therefore, is to gift a daughter a verbal amulet: modest and melodious, yet fortified by centuries of cultural capital—rather like slipping a small, beautifully engraved bronze coin into her hand and saying, with dry understatement, “Here, querida, you might find this useful on life’s grand marketplace.”

Pronunciation

Arabic,Swahili

• Pronunced as ah-MEE-nah (/ʔa.miː.na/)

• Amalia
• Amaya
• Amira
• Amara
• Amani