Negar
A feminine Persian name meaning "bright", "shining", or "precious stone".
Name Census estimates that about 50 living Americans carry the first name Negar. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Negar today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Negar births was 1985 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Negar. 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 Negar with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Negar. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
50
~ 1 in 6,855,087 Americans
Peak year
1985
8 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1991 SSA rank
#14,689
Tracked since 1979
Census
Negar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 747 people with the first name Negar, which placed it at #15,407 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
#15,407
National first-name rank
People counted
747
747 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Negar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Negar is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Negar 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 Negar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.5% · 639
- Two or more races9.5% · 71
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 12
- Black or African American0.3% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Negar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Negar from the 1970s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 42 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Negar 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 Negar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Negars live
Origin
Meaning and history of Negar
Negar is a Persian feminine given name that originated in ancient Persia, now modern-day Iran. The name has its roots in the Old Persian word "negar," which means "image," "picture," or "beautiful." It was a common name among the ancient Persians and was often given to girls who were considered exceptionally beautiful.
The earliest recorded use of the name Negar dates back to the Sasanian Empire, which ruled over Persia from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. During this period, the name was mentioned in several Persian literary works, including the epic poem "Shahnameh" by the renowned poet Ferdowsi.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Negar was Negar Khatun, a Seljuk princess who lived in the 11th century. She was the daughter of Sultan Malik Shah and was renowned for her beauty and intelligence.
In the 12th century, a famous Persian poet named Negar Ghodsi gained prominence for her poetic works. She was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, and her poetry often celebrated the beauty of nature and the human experience.
During the Safavid Dynasty, which ruled over Persia from the 16th to the 18th century, the name Negar became increasingly popular among the nobility and upper classes. One notable figure from this era was Negar Khanum, a princess and the daughter of Shah Abbas I, who was known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
In more recent times, Negar Gohar Estiri was a renowned Iranian painter and sculptor who lived from 1924 to 2018. She was a pioneer in the field of modern Iranian art and her works have been exhibited in various countries around the world.
Another notable individual with the name Negar is Negar Azizmoradi, an Iranian-Canadian actress and model who has appeared in several television shows and films, including the critically acclaimed movie "The Salesman" by Asghar Farhadi.
Throughout its long history, the name Negar has been associated with beauty, art, and literary traditions in Persian culture. It continues to be a popular name in Iran and among Persian diaspora communities around the world.
People
Negar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Negar 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
Negar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Negar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 50 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Negar 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 6,855,087 US residents.
Is Negar a common name?
We classify Negar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Negar most popular?
The single biggest year for Negar was 1985, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Negar is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Negar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 747 people with the name Negar, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,407 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 Negar 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 Negar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Negar appears almost entirely female. Of the 746 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Negar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Negar is White at 85.5%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (9.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Negar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Negar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.5% (639 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 Negar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Negar a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Negar 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 Negar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Negar 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 Negar 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 Negar?
Want to know how many people have the name Negar? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.