Novah
Masculine · “new”
Novah is given to both — 514 boys and 3,469 girls since 1880. See Novah as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Nova is Latin for new, and in astronomy it names a star that suddenly brightens: not a birth, as the word suggests, but an old star flaring. Novah is the same word with a silent h added, a modern spelling that softens the ending and marks the name as chosen rather than borrowed.
How old is the name Novah?
Novah first appears in US birth records in 2011 — 14 years ago. The typical Novah is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Novah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Novah most popular?
Novah peaked in 2020, reaching #2235 nationally. Today it ranks #4857, 2,622 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From novus to Novah
The story of Novah
The astronomical use is old: a sixteenth-century Danish observer published a book called De Stella Nova about a star that appeared and faded, and the word has named that phenomenon ever since. As a given name Nova is recent, part of a run of space and sky names that American parents have been using for two decades alongside Orion, Luna and Astro. Novah with an h belongs to the same habit that produced Norah and Aaliyah spellings, adding a letter that changes the look and not the sound.
Meaning
new
Latin nova, the feminine of novus, new. Astronomers took it for a star that appears where none was visible before, calling it a stella nova, a new star, which is the sense most people know.
How the name formed
- novus
- nova
- Novah
Related forms: Nova · Nova
Pronouncing Novah
NOH-vuh
Two syllables, stress in front, the o long as in go. The h at the end is silent.
Nicknames for Novah
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
- 2011
- Most boys named
- 202061 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2235reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −55.6%20 in 2025, from 45
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.
Novah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nova in Latin — same name
- Nova in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Novahs among us
people named Novah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was named Novah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Novah
- #4857
- Novah on the 2025 chart
- #759
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Novah went to 20 boys in 2025, but Nova is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 169, which makes it the 759th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,098 places above the chart.
- Nova149
- Novah20
About 1 boy in 10,107 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 85,404 for Novah 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 Satchel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Novah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Satchel climbed just as high around 1998, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Satchel's path sketches the road Novah is walking now.
Novah 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
Novah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Novah 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 one plain word and the astronomical sense is easy to show a child.
- Four sounds and two syllables make it very easy for a small child to say.
- It sits within an established group of sky names rather than standing alone.
- Nova without the h is the far commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- The name is given mostly to girls in American records, so a boy called Novah will be misfiled at times.
- It is a Latin word in everyday use in several languages, so the name turns up in ordinary sentences.
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Novah
Masculine · #4857 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Novahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Novah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Novah?
- Novah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Nova is the more common one — 149 births in 2025 against 20 for Novah.
- How popular is the name Novah in 2025?
- Novah ranks #4857 among US boy names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Novah?
- About 1 in every 85,404 US boys born in 2025 was named Novah — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Novah with classmates?
- Novah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Novah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Carlyle#4857 · Russ#4857 · Hercules#4857 · Marcial#4857 · Lauro#4857 · Marin#4857 · Gil#4857 · Aloysius#4857
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Novah? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Novah and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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