Nisha
Feminine · “Sanskrit "night”
Night is one of the most stable words in the Indo-European family, and it is the standard demonstration that the family exists. Sanskrit niś, Latin nox, Greek nyx, German Nacht, English night — the correspondences are so regular that the sound laws were built on words like this one.
How old is the name Nisha?
Nisha first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Nisha alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 2,900 people named Nisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nisha most popular?
Nisha peaked in 1984, reaching #1238 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 6,647 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Where it comes from
From niśā to Nisha
The story of Nisha
Comparative linguistics was built on sets like this. In the early nineteenth century scholars noticed that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and the Germanic languages showed systematic rather than random correspondences — that where Latin had a p, Germanic reliably had an f, and where Latin had a t, Germanic had th. Words for night, father, three, two and heart were among the evidence, because they are basic vocabulary and rarely borrowed. Grimm's law formalized the Germanic side of it in 1822, and the whole discipline of historical linguistics followed. Nisha's American figures peak in 1984, at which point many bearers are the clipped Tanisha rather than the Sanskrit word.
Meaning
Sanskrit "night"
From Sanskrit niśā, night. The word is cognate with Latin nox, Greek nyx, Old Irish nocht, Gothic nahts, Russian noch and English night — one of the clearest sets of correspondences in the Indo-European family. Nisha is a common name across India. Separately, it is used in America as a clip of Danisha and Tanisha, which are unrelated formations.
How the name formed
- niśā
- Nisha
Related forms: निशा · निशा
Pronouncing Nisha
NEE-shah
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a long ee. The sh is retroflex in Indian pronunciation, made further back than the English sh; English speakers say a plain sh.
Nicknames for Nisha
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
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 1984104 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1238reached in 1984
- Change vs 2024
- −35.0%13 in 2025, from 20
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.
Nisha in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- निशा in Hindi — transliteration
- निशा in Marathi — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Nishas among us
people named Nisha are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Nisha
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nisha
- #7885
- Nisha on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nisha went to 13 girls in 2025, but Nysha is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 938th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,947 places above the chart.
- Nisha13
- Nysha9
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Nisha 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 Albirta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nisha's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Albirta climbed just as high around 1905, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Albirta's path sketches the road Nisha is walking now.
Nisha 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
Nisha beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nisha in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and the word has an unusually deep documented history.
- Nish is an easy English short form.
- It is short, two syllables and read correctly by English speakers.
- Two unrelated origins produce the same American name.
- The retroflex sh is not reproduced in English.
- It is easily confused with Neesha and Nyisha in writing.
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What they receive
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Nisha
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nishas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Nisha are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nisha?
- Nisha is the most-used spelling in US records — 13 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nysha.
- How popular is the name Nisha in 2025?
- Nisha ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nisha?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Nisha — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nisha with classmates?
- Nisha will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nisha
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nisha? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nisha and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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