Nhi
Feminine · “Vietnamese "child”
Vietnamese is the only East Asian language written in the Latin alphabet, and the alphabet was designed by missionaries. Alexandre de Rhodes published the dictionary that fixed it in 1651; the country adopted it officially in 1945, replacing a thousand years of Chinese characters.
How old is the name Nhi?
Nhi first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Nhi alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 1,100 people named Nhi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nhi most popular?
Nhi peaked in 1990, reaching #2799 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 4,692 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From 兒 to Nhi
The story of Nhi
Vietnamese was written with Chinese characters and with chữ Nôm, a locally invented character script, for most of its recorded history. Portuguese and French Jesuits working in the seventeenth century devised a Latin-based system to teach and translate, and Alexandre de Rhodes's Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary of 1651 consolidated it. It remained a missionary tool for two centuries, was promoted by the French colonial administration, and was adopted as the national script by the independent government in 1945 — a deliberate break with the Chinese-character tradition. The result is a writing system with more diacritics than almost any other, most of which American forms strip. Nhi peaks in 1990.
Meaning
Vietnamese "child, young girl"
Nhi is from the Sino-Vietnamese reading of the character 兒, a child — the same character read er in Mandarin and ji in Japanese. It is written Nhi in the modern alphabet, and the digraph nh represents a palatal nasal, the sound of Spanish ñ, which English does not have at the start of a word. Vietnamese is tonal, and Nhi carries a tone that the plain spelling in American records does not show.
How the name formed
- 兒
- Nhi
Related forms: Nhi · Tường Nhi
Pronouncing Nhi
nyee
One syllable. The nh is the palatal nasal of Spanish ñ or the ni of onion, but at the start of the word, which English never does — so English speakers usually say nee or nye. Vietnamese also carries a tone that the spelling here does not mark.
Nicknames for Nhi
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 199943 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2799reached in 1990
- Change vs 2024
- −6.7%14 in 2025, from 15
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.
Nhi in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nhi in Vietnamese — same name
- Tường Nhi in Vietnamese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Nhis among us
people named Nhi are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Nhi
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 Maribell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nhi's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maribell climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maribell's path sketches the road Nhi is walking now.
Nhi 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
Nhi beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nhi in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is very short and simple to write.
- The meaning is settled and documented through the Chinese character.
- It is a common and entirely ordinary Vietnamese name.
- The initial nh has no English equivalent and is always approximated.
- The tone is lost entirely in English speech and in American records.
- Three-letter names are sometimes rejected or mangled by forms.
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What they receive
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Nhi
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nhis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Nhi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nhi in 2025?
- Nhi ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nhi?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Nhi — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nhi with classmates?
- Nhi will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nhi
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nhi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nhi and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
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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