Nazareth
Masculine · “the town's own name”
Nazareth is given to both — 1,198 boys and 1,204 girls since 1880. See Nazareth as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Nazareth is a town in Galilee, on a ridge above the Jezreel Valley, and it has been carrying more weight than its size for two thousand years. As a first name it belongs mostly to Spanish-speaking Catholic families, where Nazaret goes to daughters and Nazareth to sons.
How old is the name Nazareth?
Nazareth first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Nazareth alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,200 people named Nazareth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nazareth most popular?
Nazareth peaked in 2020, reaching #2546 nationally. Today it ranks #2718, 172 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Natzrat to Nazareth
The story of Nazareth
Nazareth is where the gospels place Jesus' childhood, which made 'the Nazarene' a way of naming him and eventually gave several languages their word for Christians — Arabic nasara, Hebrew notzrim. In Spanish and Portuguese Catholic tradition the place-name became a personal name through the devotional title Nuestra Señora de Nazaret, and names of that kind — Guadalupe, Belén, Fátima, Carmen — are ordinary given names in the Spanish-speaking world in a way they never became in English. Nazareth reaches United States records almost entirely along that road.
Meaningscholars disagree
the town's own name; possibly 'branch' or 'watchpost'
Hebrew Natzrat has no agreed etymology. One reading takes it from netzer, 'branch' or 'shoot', a connection early Christian writers drew to a line in Isaiah. Another takes it from natzar, 'to watch, to guard', giving a watchpost on a ridge — which suits the site. A third holds that it is simply an old place-name that predates any Hebrew reading of it. The town is what the name means; the rest is argument.
How the name formed
- Natzrat
- Nazaret
- Nazareth
Related forms: Nazaret · an-Nasira · Natzrat · Nazaré
Pronouncing Nazareth
NAZ-uh-reth
Three syllables with the stress at the front in English. Spanish says nah-sah-RET or nah-thah-RET, stress at the end and no th sound at all. The two sayings barely resemble each other, and families using the name usually mean the Spanish one.
Nicknames for Nazareth
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
- 1920
- Most boys named
- 202349 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2546reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −2.1%47 in 2025, from 48
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.
Nazareth in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nazaret in Spanish — spelling variant
- an-Nasira in Arabic — related form
- Natzrat in Hebrew — transliteration
- Nazaré in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Nazareths among us
people named Nazareth are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was named Nazareth
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 Kajuan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nazareth's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kajuan climbed just as high around 1997, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kajuan's path sketches the road Nazareth is walking now.
Nazareth 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 Nazareth is headed
Nazareth should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Nazareth beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nazareth in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Recognized instantly across the Christian world and spelled the same way wherever the gospels are read.
- Naz is an easy and natural short form.
- Belongs to a long-established Spanish tradition of place-and-devotion names rather than being newly coined.
- It is an unmistakably religious name and will be read as a statement whether or not one is intended.
- The English and Spanish pronunciations are very different, so the child will hear both.
- In Spanish use it goes more often to girls, as Nazaret, which a boy carrying it may end up explaining.
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What they receive
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Nazareth
Masculine · #2718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nazareths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Nazareth are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nazareth in 2025?
- Nazareth ranks #2718 among US boy names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nazareth?
- About 1 in every 36,342 US boys born in 2025 was named Nazareth — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nazareth with classmates?
- Nazareth will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nazareth
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Einar#2718 · Kurtis#2718 · Sasha#2718 · Jovany#2718 · Ahsan#2718 · Xavien#2718 · Yassin#2718 · Unknown#2718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nazareth? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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