Naa
A feminine Ghanaian name meaning "born on Monday".
Name Census estimates that about 45 living Americans carry the first name Naa. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Naa today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Naa births was 2019 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Naa. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Naa with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Naa. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
45
~ 1 in 7,616,763 Americans
Peak year
2019
8 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2019 SSA rank
#12,095
Tracked since 1981
Census
Naa in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 393 people with the first name Naa, which placed it at #24,486 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#24,486
National first-name rank
People counted
393
393 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
57.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Naa
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Naa is Black at 57.0%. The next largest groups are White (18.8%) and Hispanic (13.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Naa described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Naa at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American57.0% · 224
- White18.8% · 74
- Hispanic or Latino13.7% · 54
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.9% · 31
- Two or more races1.5% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 4
Popularity
Naa: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Naa from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 16 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Naa remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Naa by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Naa during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Naa
The name Naa originates from the Arabic language and culture. It has its roots in the ancient Semitic languages spoken in the Middle East and North Africa. The name is derived from the Arabic word "na'a," which means "to thrive" or "to prosper."
In Islamic tradition, the name is often associated with the concept of prosperity and blessings. It is believed that giving a child this name was a way of expressing the parents' wish for their child to lead a prosperous and fulfilling life.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Naa can be found in ancient Arabic poetry and literature, where it was often used as a feminine name. The name gained popularity across the Middle East and North Africa during the spread of Islam in the 7th century CE.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Naa. One of the earliest recorded examples is Naa'ila bint Al-Farafisa, a 7th-century Arab poetess and warrior from the Banu Qais tribe in the Arabian Peninsula.
Another historically significant figure with the name Naa was Naa'ima bint Al-Walid, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the early converts to Islam in the 7th century CE. She is renowned for her piety and devotion to the faith.
In the 11th century, Naa'ima Al-Baghdadiya was a prominent female scholar and poet from Baghdad. She was renowned for her mastery of Arabic literature and her contributions to the intellectual life of the Abbasid Caliphate.
During the 12th century, Naa'ima Al-Hamdaniya was a renowned Sufi mystic and poetess from Aleppo, Syria. Her spiritual poetry and teachings influenced the development of Sufism in the region.
In more recent times, Naa'ima bint Rashid Al-Zahawi was a 20th-century Iraqi writer and feminist activist. She played a significant role in promoting women's rights and education in Iraq during the early part of the 20th century.
People
Naa + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Naa as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Naa: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Naa?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 45 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Naa going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 7,616,763 US residents.
Is Naa a common name?
We classify Naa as "Very Rare". It ranks above 52.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 46 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Naa most popular?
The single biggest year for Naa was 2019, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Naa is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Naa in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 393 people with the name Naa, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,486 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Naa in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Naa?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Naa on both sides of the split. Of the 391 people counted with this name, 82 were male (21.0%) and 309 were female (79.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Naa?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Naa is Black at 57.0%. The next largest groups are White (18.8%) and Hispanic (13.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Naa most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Naa in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.0% (224 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Naa in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Naa a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Naa in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Naa still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Naa in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Naa can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Naa?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.