Nari
Feminine · “lily”
Nari is a Korean name meaning lily — the flower, taken directly as a name in the way Korean naming has increasingly favored over the Chinese-derived forms.
How old is the name Nari?
Nari first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Nari is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Nari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nari most popular?
Nari peaked in 2025, reaching #3517 nationally. Today it ranks #3517, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Nari
Korean given names have traditionally been built from Chinese characters, but the twentieth century brought a movement towards pure Korean words — Nari, Haneul, Areum, Seul — chosen for their meaning in Korean rather than in Sino-Korean. Nari, the lily, belongs to that movement. It reaches American records with Korean families and, separately and coincidentally, with Persian and Japanese ones.
Meaningscholars disagree
lily
Korean nari is the ordinary word for a lily and is used directly as a name. Separately, Persian nar and its derivatives name the pomegranate flower, and Japanese Nari occurs with its own kanji. The three are unrelated and all are in use.
Pronouncing Nari
NAH-ree
Two syllables, evenly weighted in Korean. English speakers stress the first.
Nicknames for Nari
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 202344 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3517reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +13.2%43 in 2025, from 38
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.
Nari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- 나리 in Korean — transliteration
- Nari in Persian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Naris among us
people named Nari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 37,378 born in 2025 was named Nari
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nari
- #3517
- Nari on the 2025 chart
- #911
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nari went to 43 girls in 2025, but Naari is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 49, which makes it the 911th most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,606 places above the chart.
- Nari43
- Naari6
About 1 girl in 32,801 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 37,378 for Nari 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 Amarilis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Amarilis climbed just as high around 1985, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Amarilis's path sketches the road Nari is walking now.
Nari 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
Where Nari is headed
Nari looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 16% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Nari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning in a living language, concrete and easy to explain.
- Four letters and two syllables, readable at sight in a great many languages.
- It belongs to a real modern Korean naming movement rather than being invented.
- Nari, Nadia and Mari are close enough to be misheard in English.
- Korean gives the syllables even weight and English stresses the first, which changes the name.
- Several unrelated traditions use the same spelling, so the meaning question names more than one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Nari
Feminine · #3517 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Naris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Nari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nari?
- Nari is the most-used spelling in US records — 43 of the 49 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Naari.
- How popular is the name Nari in 2025?
- Nari ranks #3517 among US girl names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nari?
- About 1 in every 37,378 US girls born in 2025 was named Nari — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nari with classmates?
- Nari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maida#3517 · Amada#3517 · Afton#3517 · Allura#3517 · Jaina#3517 · Hallee#3517 · Katara#3517 · Joella#3517
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nari and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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