Najma
Feminine · “a star”
Najma is the Arabic word for a single star, and it is used as a name across a very wide territory — from Morocco to Somalia to Pakistan — with the spelling holding steady the whole way. Its American record follows twentieth-century migration rather than fashion: it appears wherever Arabic-speaking, Somali and South Asian communities settled, and it peaked in the early 2000s.
How old is the name Najma?
Najma first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Najma alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 900 people named Najma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Najma most popular?
Najma peaked in 2001, reaching #3785 nationally. Today it ranks #5722, 1,937 places below that high. See the whole 2001 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From najm to Najma
The story of Najma
Arabic naming has always drawn on the visible sky, and the star words are among the oldest: Najma, Suhayla for Canopus, Thurayya for the Pleiades. Najma spread with the language itself across North Africa and the Horn, and then with Persian and Urdu, which borrowed a great deal of Arabic religious and poetic vocabulary. In Somalia the form Najmo is common; in Pakistan and northern India, Najma. American use begins in earnest in the second half of the twentieth century and rises with Somali resettlement in Minnesota, Ohio and Washington from the 1990s onward.
Meaning
a star
From the Arabic root n-j-m, which carries the sense of appearing or rising. Najm is the collective noun for stars; najma is the unit noun, one star, and the -a also serves as the feminine ending. The same root gives najjama, to study the stars, and the medieval title Najm al-Din, 'star of the faith'. Nothing here is contested; it is an ordinary word used as a name.
How the name formed
- najm
- najma
- Najma
Related forms: Najma · Najmo · Najma · Najmeh · Necmiye
Pronouncing Najma
NAJ-mah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The j is the English j of jam, and the final a is open, closer to the a of father than to a schwa. The n-j-m cluster gives no trouble to English speakers, which is one reason this name travels better than most Arabic names.
Nicknames for Najma
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
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 201638 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3785reached in 2001
- Change vs 2024
- +10.5%21 in 2025, from 19
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.
Najma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Najma in Arabic — same name
- Najmo in Somali — related form
- Najma in Urdu — same name
- Najmeh in Persian — related form
- Necmiye in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota, New York, Ohio.
Najmas among us
people named Najma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 76,537 born in 2025 was named Najma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Arlisha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Najma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Arlisha climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Arlisha's path sketches the road Najma is walking now.
Najma 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
Najma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Najma 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 one word long and understood in dozens of countries.
- The spelling is stable across Arabic, Somali and Urdu transliteration, which is rare.
- It is short, easy to say and unambiguous in English pronunciation.
- In the United States it is uncommon enough that it will always be spelled out.
- The related Somali form Najmo and the Persian Najmeh look like errors to people who know only one of them.
- It has a clear cultural and religious frame, which is a strength or a consideration depending on the family.
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What they receive
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Najma
Feminine · #5722 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Najmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Najma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Najma in 2025?
- Najma ranks #5722 among US girl names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Najma?
- About 1 in every 76,537 US girls born in 2025 was named Najma — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Najma with classmates?
- Najma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Najma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rosina#5722 · Delores#5722 · Vaughn#5722 · Roseline#5722 · Loyal#5722 · Missy#5722 · Danitza#5722 · Margret#5722
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Najma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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