Naimah
Feminine · “tranquil”
Naimah is the Arabic word for ease. The root covers tranquility, comfort, and the blessings of a life without hardship, and the name is used across the Arabic-speaking world and in African-American naming, where it entered in the 1960s and 1970s. Its American peak is 1977.
How old is the name Naimah?
Naimah first appears in US birth records in 1976 — 49 years ago. The typical Naimah alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 1,600 people named Naimah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Naimah most popular?
Naimah peaked in 1977, reaching #1922 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 4,194 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From n-'-m to Naimah
The story of Naimah
American interest in Arabic and Muslim names grew substantially in the 1960s and 1970s, driven by the Nation of Islam, by conversions to Sunni Islam, and by a broader turn away from inherited European names. Naimah, Aisha, Jamila, Rasheeda, Khalilah and Malikah all entered American records in real numbers in those decades. The names came with meanings attached and were chosen for them, which distinguishes this cohort from most naming fashions. The terminal h in Naimah reflects a real Arabic letter and is not decorative, unlike its use in many American respellings.
Meaning
tranquil, at ease; blessed with comfort
From the Arabic root n-'-m, which covers softness, ease, comfort and divine favor; ni'ma is a blessing or a benefit, and na'ima is the feminine adjective describing someone at ease or in comfort. The same root gives Na'im, the masculine, and one of the names of paradise in the Quran, Jannat al-Na'im, the garden of delight. The derivation is settled and the sense is unusually specific.
How the name formed
- n-'-m
- na'ima
- Naimah
Related forms: Naima · Naime · Naima · Naimeh
Pronouncing Naimah
nah-EE-mah
Three syllables in the Arabic saying, with a slight break between the first two and the stress in the middle. English speakers commonly compress it to two, NY-mah, which is understood but loses a syllable. The h is silent.
Nicknames for Naimah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1976
- Most girls named
- 201177 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1922reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- +11.8%19 in 2025, from 17
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Naimah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Naima in Arabic — spelling variant
- Naime in Turkish — related form
- Naima in Swahili — same name
- Naimeh in Persian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania.
Naimahs among us
people named Naimah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Naimah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Naimah
- #6116
- Naimah on the 2025 chart
- #847
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Naimah went to 19 girls in 2025, but Naima is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 113, which makes it the 847th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,269 places above the chart.
- Naima94
- Naimah19
About 1 girl in 14,224 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 84,593 for Naimah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kathyleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Naimah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kathyleen climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kathyleen's path sketches the road Naimah is walking now.
Naimah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Naimah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Naimah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is specific, positive and expressible in a few words.
- The spelling is stable across Arabic and Swahili transliteration.
- It is made only of sounds English already has.
- Two- and three-syllable pronunciations both circulate.
- Naima and Naimah are both standard and look like errors for each other.
- The terminal h is silent and gets dropped by people writing from dictation.
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What they receive
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Naimah
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Naimahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Naimah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Naimah?
- Naimah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Naima is the more common one — 94 births in 2025 against 19 for Naimah.
- How popular is the name Naimah in 2025?
- Naimah ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Naimah?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Naimah — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Naimah with classmates?
- Naimah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Naimah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Naimah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Naimah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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