Nemo
A name of Latin origin meaning "no one", or "nobody".
Name Census estimates that about 61 living Americans carry the first name Nemo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nemo today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nemo births was 2021 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nemo. 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 Nemo with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Nemo. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
61
~ 1 in 5,618,924 Americans
Peak year
2021
8 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,428
Tracked since 1922
Census
Nemo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 283 people with the first name Nemo, which placed it at #30,644 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
#30,644
National first-name rank
People counted
283
283 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nemo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nemo is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (19.4%). 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 Nemo 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 Nemo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.2% · 108
- Black or African American23.3% · 66
- Hispanic or Latino19.4% · 55
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.0% · 34
- Two or more races6.0% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
Popularity
Nemo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nemo from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 24 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nemo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nemo 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 Nemo 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 Nemo
The given name Nemo has its origins in the Latin language. It is derived from the Latin word "nemo" which translates to "no one" or "nobody". The name gained popularity during the Roman era and was used as both a personal name and a nickname.
In ancient Roman literature, the name Nemo appears in various texts and writings. One of the earliest recorded examples is found in Virgil's Aeneid, where Nemo is mentioned as a character who aids Aeneas on his journey. The name also appears in the works of Cicero, Plautus, and other notable Roman authors, often used as a placeholder or a generic term for an unnamed person.
During the Middle Ages, the name Nemo was less commonly used, but it resurfaced during the Renaissance period, particularly in Italian literature. The Italian writer and philosopher Giordano Bruno used the name Nemo as a pseudonym in some of his works, such as the dialogue "Spaccio della bestia trionfante" (The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast).
One of the most famous historical figures who bore the name Nemo was Nemo of Arles, a Christian saint who lived in the 7th century. He was a monk and a hermit who founded the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Marseille, France. His feast day is celebrated on July 15th in the Catholic Church.
Another notable Nemo was Nemo of Bamberg, a German monk and scholar who lived in the 11th century. He is known for his contributions to the development of music theory and his writings on the subject, including the treatise "De mensura monochord" (On the Measurement of the Monochord).
In the 19th century, the name Nemo gained literary fame through the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. The protagonist, Captain Nemo, is a mysterious and complex character who leads an expedition aboard the submarine Nautilus. The name Nemo was chosen by Verne to represent the character's isolation and detachment from society.
Other notable individuals named Nemo include Nemo the Centenarian, a Roman freedman who lived in the 1st century AD and is recorded as having lived to the age of 120. There was also Nemo, a 9th-century Breton monk and scholar who wrote on astronomy and mathematics.
While the name Nemo has its roots in Latin and ancient Roman culture, it has been used across various regions and time periods, often associated with literary or historical figures known for their enigmatic or reclusive nature.
People
Nemo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nemo 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
Nemo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nemo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 61 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nemo 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 5,618,924 US residents.
Is Nemo a common name?
We classify Nemo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 68 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nemo most popular?
The single biggest year for Nemo was 2021, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nemo is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nemo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 283 people with the name Nemo, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,644 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 Nemo 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 Nemo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nemo leans strongly male. 234 people counted with this name were male (81.5%), compared with 53 female bearers (18.5%). 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 Nemo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nemo is White at 38.2%. The next largest groups are Black (23.3%) and Hispanic (19.4%). 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 Nemo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nemo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.2% (108 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 Nemo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nemo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nemo in the SSA data are male. 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 Nemo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nemo 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 Nemo 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 Nemo?
Want to know how many people share the name Nemo? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.