Nima
Masculine · “The sun”
Nima is given to both — 1,052 boys and 369 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Nima is two genuine names that arrived at the same four letters from opposite ends of Asia. In Persian it belongs to the poet who broke classical Persian verse open; in Tibetan it is the sun, and the day of the week named for it. Both reach American records.
How old is the name Nima?
Nima first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Nima alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,000 people named Nima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nima most popular?
Nima peaked in 1982, reaching #1596 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 3,612 places below that high. See the whole 1982 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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 199041 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1596reached in 1982
- Change vs 2024
- +28.6%18 in 2025, from 14
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 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Nima
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 Jiro test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nima's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jiro climbed just as high around 1918, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jiro's path sketches the road Nima is walking now.
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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters, two open syllables, and no consonant cluster anywhere.
- It works as a real name in Persian, Tibetan, Nepali and Dzongkha.
- The Tibetan meaning, the sun, is concrete and pleasant.
- It is used for girls as well as boys in the Himalayan tradition.
- The two sources give it two different meanings and two different pronunciations.
- Nima, Neema and Nyima are all in use in America.
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What they receive
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Nima
Masculine · #5208 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 1,000 people named Nima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nima in 2025?
- Nima ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nima?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Nima — 18 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.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nima? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nima and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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