Nima
Feminine · “The sun”
Nima is given to both — 369 girls and 1,052 boys since 1880. See Nima as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Nima entered the US charts in 1921, peaked at #4195 in 1928, ranks #10917 in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Nima?
Nima first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Nima alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 300 people named Nima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nima most popular?
Nima peaked in 1928, reaching #4195 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 6,722 places below that high. See the whole 1928 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Nima
Ali Esfandiari, born in Yush in Mazandaran in 1897, took the name Nima Yushij and wrote the poems that ended six centuries of fixed classical form in Persian; modern Persian poetry is dated from him, and Iranian families have used the name for boys ever since. The Tibetan Nyima is much older and works differently: children born on a Sunday are commonly given it, so it is less a chosen name than a calendrical one, and it is shared by men and women across Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim. Both communities appear in American records from the 1970s onward, and the modest peak in the early 1980s reflects Iranian arrivals after 1979 more than anything else.
Meaningscholars disagree
The sun, in Tibetan
Tibetan ཉི་མ nyi ma means the sun and, by extension, Sunday; it is one of the seven weekday names given to children across the Tibetan and Himalayan world. Persian Nima is a different word: it was the pen name of Ali Esfandiari and is usually connected to a Mazandarani dialect word, though its meaning is not securely established. Arabic niʿma, blessing, is sometimes offered as a third source and fits the spelling poorly. Which of these applies depends on the family.
Pronouncing Nima
NEE-mah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long ee. Tibetan is closer to NYEE-ma, with the palatal at the start. English speakers occasionally say NY-muh.
Nicknames for Nima
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 201316 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4195reached in 1928
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%8 in 2025, from 9
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.
Nima in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- نیما in Persian — transliteration
- ཉི་མ in Tibetan — transliteration
- Nima in Nepali — same name
- Nyima in Dzongkha — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Nimas among us
people named Nima are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Nima
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nima
- #10917
- Nima on the 2025 chart
- #944
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nima went to 8 girls in 2025, but Nyima is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 16, which makes it the 944th most-given girls’ name of the year — 9,973 places above the chart.
- Nima8
- Nyima8
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 200,908 for Nima 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
Fashion outlook
Nima 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
Nima beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nima in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
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Nima
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nimas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Nima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nima?
- Nima is the most-used spelling in US records — 8 of the 16 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nyima.
- How popular is the name Nima in 2025?
- Nima ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nima?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Nima — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nima with classmates?
- Nima will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nima
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nima? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nima and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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