Nairi
An Armenian feminine name meaning "first rays of the sun".
Name Census estimates that about 286 living Americans carry the first name Nairi. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nairi today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nairi births was 2021 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nairi. 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.
People living today
286
~ 1 in 1,198,442 Americans
Peak year
2021
18 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,800
Tracked since 1990
Census
Nairi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 337 people with the first name Nairi, which placed it at #27,242 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
#27,242
National first-name rank
People counted
337
337 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nairi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nairi is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.4%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Nairi 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 Nairi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.7% · 262
- Hispanic or Latino13.4% · 45
- Black or African American5.0% · 17
- Two or more races3.0% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 3
Popularity
Nairi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nairi from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 113 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nairi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nairi 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 Nairi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nairis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nairi
The given name Nairi is believed to have originated from the Armenian language. It is derived from the ancient Armenian name for the region that is now known as Armenia, which was historically referred to as Nairi or Nairi Land. This region was located in the highlands surrounding the mountains of Ararat, where the Armenian people have lived for thousands of years.
The name Nairi can be traced back to ancient Assyrian inscriptions and records from the 9th century BC, where it was used to refer to the people and the land of Armenia. In these inscriptions, the name was written using cuneiform script as "Na-i-ri" or "Na-'i-ri." This indicates that the name has been in use for over 2,800 years.
One of the earliest known references to the name Nairi is found in the Khorkhor inscriptions, which are a series of rock inscriptions located in the Armenian Highlands. These inscriptions, dating back to the 8th century BC, mention the name Nairi in reference to the local rulers and their territories.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Nairi. One of the earliest known figures was Nairi, a prominent Armenian nobleman and military commander who lived in the 4th century AD. He played a significant role in defending Armenia against the invasions of the Sassanid Persian Empire.
Another notable figure was Nairi Hunanyan, an Armenian writer and poet who lived in the 17th century. He is best known for his works that celebrated Armenian culture and identity, particularly during a time of Ottoman Turkish rule over Armenia.
In the 19th century, Nairi Zarian was a prominent Armenian revolutionary and activist who fought for Armenian independence from the Ottoman Empire. He was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and played a key role in organizing resistance movements against Turkish oppression.
Nairi Petrosian was a renowned Armenian chess player who lived from 1928 to 1984. He was a Grandmaster and won the Soviet Chess Championship in 1963 and 1966. Petrosian was widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in the history of chess.
More recently, Nairi Hunanyan was an Armenian singer and songwriter who lived from 1938 to 2015. She was known for her contributions to Armenian folk music and her efforts to preserve and promote Armenian cultural heritage through her music.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Nairi, which has its roots in the ancient Armenian language and culture, dating back thousands of years.
People
Nairi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nairi 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
Nairi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nairi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 286 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nairi 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 1,198,442 US residents.
Is Nairi a common name?
We classify Nairi as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 290 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nairi most popular?
The single biggest year for Nairi was 2021, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nairi is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nairi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 337 people with the name Nairi, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,242 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 Nairi 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 Nairi?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nairi leans strongly female. 315 people counted with this name were female (92.4%), compared with 26 male bearers (7.6%). 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 Nairi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nairi is White at 77.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.4%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Nairi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nairi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.7% (262 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 Nairi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nairi a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nairi 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 Nairi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nairi 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 Nairi 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 are named Nairi?
Find out how many people have the name Nairi on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.