Nilah
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "attained" or "reach of goal".
Name Census estimates that about 1,256 living Americans carry the first name Nilah. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nilah today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nilah births was 2012 (84 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nilah. 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 Nilah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Nilah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 272,894 Americans
Peak year
2012
84 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,616
Tracked since 1916
Census
Nilah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 995 people with the first name Nilah, which placed it at #12,481 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
#12,481
National first-name rank
People counted
995
995 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nilah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nilah is Black at 54.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.0%) and Hispanic (14.2%). 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 Nilah 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 Nilah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.0% · 537
- White20.0% · 199
- Hispanic or Latino14.2% · 141
- Two or more races8.6% · 86
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 15
Popularity
Nilah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nilah from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 710 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nilah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nilah 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 Nilah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nilahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, New York, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Nilah, while Virginia, Louisiana, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nilah
The name Nilah has its origins in Arabic culture and language. It is derived from the Arabic word "nilah," which means "indigo" or "deep blue." This name is believed to have emerged during the medieval period in the Middle East and North Africa, where the use of indigo dye for textiles was widespread.
In ancient Arabic literature, the name Nilah is sometimes associated with the color blue, which held symbolic significance in Islamic art and culture. The color blue was often used to represent the sky, water, and the divine realm, making the name Nilah a poetic and spiritually-infused choice.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nilah can be found in the writings of the 10th-century Arab poet and scholar, Al-Mutanabbi. In his celebrated collection of poems, he mentions a woman named Nilah, although details about her life are scarce.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nilah. One of the most famous was Nilah al-Zahida (1150-1228), a renowned Sufi mystic and poet from Baghdad. Her works explored the themes of divine love, spiritual enlightenment, and the mystical path.
Another historical figure named Nilah was Nilah bint al-Badr (1225-1293), a influential scholar and teacher of Islamic jurisprudence from Damascus. She was widely respected for her vast knowledge of Islamic law and her contributions to legal education during the Ayyubid dynasty.
In the 15th century, Nilah al-Masriya (1410-1478) was a celebrated calligrapher and artist in Cairo, known for her exquisite illuminated manuscripts and her mastery of the Arabic script.
During the Ottoman Empire, Nilah Hanim (1560-1625) was a prominent figure at the imperial court in Istanbul. She was a skilled poet and patron of the arts, and her works were widely celebrated in her lifetime.
While the name Nilah has ancient roots, it has maintained a presence throughout various periods of history, carried by notable individuals in the realms of literature, spirituality, scholarship, and the arts.
People
Nilah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nilah 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
Nilah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nilah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,256 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nilah 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 272,894 US residents.
Is Nilah a common name?
We classify Nilah as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,380 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nilah most popular?
The single biggest year for Nilah was 2012, when 84 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nilah is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nilah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 995 people with the name Nilah, or 0.33 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,481 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 Nilah 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 Nilah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nilah appears almost entirely female. Of the 992 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Nilah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nilah is Black at 54.0%. The next largest groups are White (20.0%) and Hispanic (14.2%). 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 Nilah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nilah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.0% (537 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 Nilah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nilah a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nilah 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 Nilah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nilah 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 Nilah 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 common is the name Nilah?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.