Nyema
Feminine
Nyema belongs to a small family of names built on an opening the English alphabet does not really support. Ny- at the start of a word is not an English sequence, which is precisely why it became useful: a name beginning Ny- announces itself as constructed, or as borrowed from somewhere English does not go.
How old is the name Nyema?
Nyema first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Nyema alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 700 people named Nyema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nyema most popular?
Nyema peaked in 2006, reaching #3264 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 3,574 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ny- to Nyema
Our story of Nyema
The Ny- opening arrived in American naming in the 1970s and became productive in the 1990s, and its usefulness is structural. English words never begin ny-; the sequence exists only in borrowings. So the two letters do a job no other prefix can: they signal that a name is not from the English word-stock before the reader has finished it. Attach them to a familiar ending — -a, -la, -asia, -ema — and the result reads as international without belonging to any particular elsewhere. Nyema takes -ema, an ending the ear already knows from Emma and Amia, and lands in 2006 at the crest of the Ny- generation. It is a name built to sound like it came from somewhere, which is not the same as having come from there.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Tibetan nyima means "sun" or "day" and is a common name, but the spelling and the American usage pattern do not point to a Tibetan source. Liberian and West African Nyema exists as a surname and given name. In the United States the name behaves like the other Ny- coinages — Nyla, Nyasia, Nyomi, Nyree — rising and falling with the prefix rather than with any community that would carry a specific meaning.
How the name formed
- Ny-
- Nyema
Related forms: ཉི་མ (Nyima)
Pronouncing Nyema
nee-AY-muh
Most commonly nee-AY-muh or NYE-muh, and the two are far apart. The ny is a single glide in the first reading and two separate sounds in the second. Because the spelling gives no guidance, both will be attempted.
Nicknames for Nyema
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 200650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3264reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- +45.5%16 in 2025, from 11
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.
Nyema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- ཉི་མ (Nyima) in Tibetan — related form
Nyemas among us
people named Nyema are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Nyema
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nyema
- #6838
- Nyema on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nyema went to 16 girls in 2025, but Niema 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 — 5,900 places above the chart.
- Nyema16
- Niema6
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,454 for Nyema 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 Jacquelina test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nyema's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquelina climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquelina's path sketches the road Nyema is walking now.
Nyema 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
Nyema beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nyema in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Ny- opening is genuinely distinctive on a page of names.
- The ending is one of the most familiar in English naming, so half the name needs no work.
- It is short, three syllables at most, and has no consonant clusters.
- There is no settled pronunciation, which means a lifetime of corrections.
- It has no documented meaning, and sources that supply a Tibetan one are guessing.
- Nyema, Nyemah and Niema are all in use.
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Nyema
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nyemas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Nyema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nyema?
- Nyema is the most-used spelling in US records — 16 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Niema.
- How popular is the name Nyema in 2025?
- Nyema ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nyema?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Nyema — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nyema with classmates?
- Nyema will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nyema
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nyema? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nyema and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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