Noah
Feminine · Hebrew roots · “rest”
Noah is given to boys far more often — 529,602 boys against 5,020 girls since 1880. See Noah as a boy name
Noah comes out of the opening chapters of Genesis, where it belongs to the builder of the ark, and it has been written, copied and read aloud in one language after another ever since. In the mouth it is two open syllables that end on a vowel — nothing to clip, nothing to harden. In American history it also belongs to Noah Webster, whose dictionary settled how much of this country spells.
How old is the name Noah?
Noah first appears in US birth records in 1931 — 94 years ago. The typical Noah is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,000 people named Noah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Noah most popular?
Noah peaked in 2024, reaching #560 nationally. Today it ranks #624, 64 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Noah appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Noaḥ (Hebrew) to Noah
The story of Noah
The name is Hebrew, Noaḥ, and reached English through scripture rather than through migration. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible wrote it Nōe, and Latin followed them, which is why French, Spanish and Portuguese still use Noé rather than a form ending in -ah. English took its spelling back from the Hebrew, and after the Reformation, when biblical names spread widely among Protestant families, Noah settled in as an ordinary English given name. The same figure is called Nuh in the Quran, so the story travels under an Arabic form as well.
Meaning
rest, repose — traditionally read as "comfort"
The Hebrew form Noaḥ matches the root nuaḥ, "to rest." Genesis itself plays on a different root, naḥam, "to comfort," when it explains the name — which is why both readings are handed down together.
How the name formed
- NoaḥHebrew
- NōeGreek
- NoeLatin
- NoahEnglish
Related forms: Noé · Noé · Noè · Nuh · Noy (Ной) · Noaḥ (נֹחַ)
Pronouncing Noah
NOH-uh
Stress on the first syllable. The French and Spanish Noé is said no-AY, with the stress on the second syllable — worth knowing if the name will be used in both languages.
Nicknames for Noah
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
- 1931
- Most girls named
- 2024542 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #560reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −13.7%468 in 2025, from 542
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.
Noah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Noé in French — same name
- Noé in Spanish — same name
- Noè in Italian — same name
- Nuh in Arabic — same name
- Noy (Ной) in Russian — transliteration
- Noaḥ (נֹחַ) in Hebrew — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Noahs among us
people named Noah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,434 born in 2025 was named Noah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Noah
- #624
- Noah on the 2025 chart
- #180
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Noah went to 468 girls in 2025, but Noa is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,816, which makes it the 180th most-given girls’ name of the year — 444 places above the chart.
- Noa1,348
- Noah468
About 1 girl in 885 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 3,434 for Noah 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 Carson test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Noah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carson climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carson's path sketches the road Noah is walking now.
Noah is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Noah is headed
Noah looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 34% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Noah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Noah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds in English, and familiar enough that it rarely needs repeating or explaining.
- Has a recognized counterpart in French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Hebrew, so it travels without becoming a different name.
- A documented written record going back thousands of years, with no gap where the name fell out of use.
- Short enough that it needs no nickname, which spares a child the shortening they didn't ask for.
- This is a name a child will share. In a school of any size there will likely be another Noah in the building, and possibly one in the same class — worth thinking about alongside a common surname.
- The ark story follows the name. Most Noahs meet cheerful jokes about animals two by two at some point, usually from adults.
- For a girl, this spelling reads as the boy's name to most people, and will often be assumed male on paper. The very close Hebrew girl's name Noa — a separate name, from the daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers — is the form most parents use for daughters.
- Its rise is recent enough that nearly every Noah alive is young. That means no elderly namesakes to grow into, but also no dated feel.
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What they receive
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Noah
Feminine · Hebrew roots · #624 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Noahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,000 people named Noah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Noah?
- Noah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Noa is the more common one — 1,348 births in 2025 against 468 for Noah.
- How popular is the name Noah in 2025?
- Noah ranks #624 among US girl names in 2025, with 468 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Noah?
- About 1 in every 3,434 US girls born in 2025 was named Noah — 468 in all.
- Will my child share the name Noah with classmates?
- Noah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Noah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sariyah#624 · Maliyah#626 · Selene#621 · Winona#627 · Goldie#621 · Keira#621 · Rivka#628 · Amiyah#620
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Noah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Noah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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