Emani is a spelling of Imani, the Swahili word for "faith", borrowed from the Arabic iman; it is the seventh principle of Kwanzaa, which brought the name into African American families in the 1970s. The E spelling softens the first vowel toward names like Emma and Emery. Emani ranked number 1117 in 2000, entered the top 1000 in 2019 at number 956, its peak, and stands at number 1375 in 2025.