Nour
Masculine · “Arabic nur”
Nour is given to both — 585 boys and 2,877 girls since 1880. See Nour as a girl nameSee other names given to both
God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The verse that begins that way, in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Quran, is one of the most commented-on passages in Arabic literature: a lamp in a niche, in a glass like a shining star, lit from a blessed olive tree neither of the east nor of the west. The chapter is called Light, and the word is nur.
How old is the name Nour?
Nour first appears in US birth records in 1989 — 36 years ago. The typical Nour alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Nour are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nour most popular?
Nour peaked in 2007, reaching #3687 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 4,556 places below that high. See the whole 2007 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From nur to Nour
The story of Nour
The Verse of Light generated an entire tradition of commentary. Philosophers read it as a description of the intellect, mystics as a description of the soul's illumination, and al-Ghazali wrote a whole treatise, the Niche of Lights, on those seven lines. The image is specific and physical: a lamp in a wall recess, its flame protected by glass, fueled by olive oil so pure that it seems to glow before the fire touches it. That concreteness is why the passage has stayed productive for fourteen centuries. The word itself is ordinary Arabic and appears throughout the language: minaret is from the same root, being a place of light, and so is the Nur of hundreds of compound names. The spelling with ou reflects French transliteration conventions, which are standard in Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Meaning
Arabic nur, light
From the Arabic root n-w-r, associated with light and illumination, giving nur, light, and munawwar, illuminated. Al-Nur, the Light, is one of the ninety-nine names of God and the title of the twenty-fourth chapter of the Quran. The name is used for men and women alike across the Arab world, and the French-influenced spelling Nour, common in Lebanon and North Africa, represents the same word as Noor. It peaks in the American data in 2007.
How the name formed
- nur
- Nour
Related forms: Noor · Nur · Nur
Pronouncing Nour
noor
One syllable, rhyming with poor. The ou spelling is French and represents the oo sound; the Noor spelling does the same thing in English convention. Both are the same word and neither is more correct.
Nicknames for Nour
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
- 1989
- Most boys named
- 200728 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3687reached in 2007
- Change vs 2024
- −66.7%9 in 2025, from 27
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.
Nour in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Noor in Arabic — transliteration
- Nur in Persian — same name
- Nur in Turkish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, New York.
Nours among us
people named Nour are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Nour
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 Artemas test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nour's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Artemas climbed just as high around 1949, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Artemas's path sketches the road Nour is walking now.
Nour 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
Nour beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nour in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and universally positive.
- It is used for both sexes across a very wide region.
- One syllable and four letters, easy to write.
- Noor is the more common spelling in English-speaking countries.
- The ou spelling will be read as the vowel of sour by some.
- It is unisex, which American records do not accommodate well.
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What they receive
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Nour
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nours are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Nour are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nour in 2025?
- Nour ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nour?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Nour — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nour with classmates?
- Nour will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nour
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nour? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nour and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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