Noura
Feminine · “light”
Noura is light in Arabic — nur — and the Light Verse of the Qur'an compares God's light to a lamp in a niche.
How old is the name Noura?
Noura first appears in US birth records in 1983 — 42 years ago. The typical Noura is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,200 people named Noura are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Noura most popular?
Noura peaked in 2024, reaching #2080 nationally. Today it ranks #2214, 134 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From nur to Noura
The story of Noura
Sura 24 contains the Light Verse — God is the light of the heavens and the earth, his light like a lamp in a niche, lit from a blessed olive tree neither of the east nor the west — and the sura takes its name from it. Noura is standard across Arabic naming and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
light
From the Arabic nur, 'light', in a feminine form. An-Nur, 'the Light', is both a sura and a divine name. The same Semitic root gives the Hebrew ner, 'lamp'. The Arabic is ordinary and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- nur
- Noura
Related forms: نورة · Nura · Nur
Pronouncing Noura
NOO-rah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The ou follows French spelling for the oo sound.
Nicknames for Noura
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
- 1983
- Most girls named
- 202492 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2080reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −9.8%83 in 2025, from 92
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.
Noura in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- نورة in Arabic — transliteration
- Nura in English — spelling variant
- Nur in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Nouras among us
people named Noura are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 19,365 born in 2025 was named Noura
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Noura
- #2214
- Noura on the 2025 chart
- #863
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Noura went to 83 girls in 2025, but Nourah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 97, which makes it the 863rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,351 places above the chart.
- Noura83
- Nourah14
About 1 girl in 16,570 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,365 for Noura 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 Nohemi test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Noura's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nohemi climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nohemi's path sketches the road Noura is walking now.
Noura 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
Where Noura is headed
Noura looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 29% 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.
Noura beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Noura in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Light Verse is a first-rate piece of writing standing behind it.
- The light meaning is transparent and undisputed.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Several transliterations are in circulation.
- The French ou spelling will confuse English speakers.
- It reads as specifically Arabic.
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What they receive
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Noura
Feminine · #2214 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nouras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Noura are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Noura?
- Noura is the most-used spelling in US records — 83 of the 97 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nourah.
- How popular is the name Noura in 2025?
- Noura ranks #2214 among US girl names in 2025, with 83 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Noura?
- About 1 in every 19,365 US girls born in 2025 was named Noura — 83 in all.
- Will my child share the name Noura with classmates?
- Noura will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Noura
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hania#2214 · Perry#2214 · Bea#2214 · Lyana#2214 · Mahira#2214 · Lanie#2214 · Alorah#2214 · Nava#2214
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Noura? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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