# Imam (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/imam/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Arabic.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Arabic |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 817 |
| US rank (2010) | 29,041 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 377,902 people |
| Change since 2000 | +74% (471 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

Occupational surname, borrowed from Arabic إمام (ʔimām). This surname is mostly found in Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Imam in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 13% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 9.3% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.1% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 71% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 3.8% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Imam in Pakistan.

## People named Imam

- Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi writer (1929–1994)

## Similar surnames

Iman, Imani, Inman, Iannone.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.