Nira
Derived from Sanskrit, meaning "tranquil waters" or "peaceful".
Name Census estimates that about 470 living Americans carry the first name Nira. It is a predominantly female name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Nira today is around 33 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nira births was 1933 (207 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nira. 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 Nira with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
470
~ 1 in 729,265 Americans
Peak year
1933
207 babies that year
Average age
33
years old
1933 SSA rank
#3,533
Tracked since 1917
Census
Nira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 834 people with the first name Nira, which placed it at #14,190 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
#14,190
National first-name rank
People counted
834
834 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nira is White at 43.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (24.8%) and Black (15.0%). 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 Nira 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 Nira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.5% · 363
- Asian and Pacific Islander24.8% · 207
- Black or African American15.0% · 125
- Hispanic or Latino12.5% · 104
- Two or more races4.0% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Nira
Out of the 783 babies given the name Nira since 1880, 99.2% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Nira as a male name
- Ranked #3,533 in 1933
- 6 male births in 1933
- Peak: 1933 (6 births)
Nira as a female name
- Ranked #7,139 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1933 (201 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nira appears almost entirely female. Of the 831 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Nira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nira from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 281 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1930s peak, Nira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nira 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 Nira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Niras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, West Virginia, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Nira, while Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nira
The name Nira has its origins in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of the Indian subcontinent, dating back to the 2nd millennium BCE. It is derived from the Sanskrit word "nir," which means "pure" or "clean." The name was commonly used in ancient India and was associated with purity, innocence, and virtue.
One of the earliest known references to the name Nira can be found in the Rigveda, one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts composed between 1500–1000 BCE. The name is mentioned in several hymns, often in the context of religious rituals and ceremonies.
In Hindu mythology, Nira is also the name of a minor goddess associated with water and rivers. She is sometimes depicted as a beautiful woman with flowing hair, holding a water pot or standing near a river.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Nira. One of the earliest recorded examples is Nira Devi (1025–1092 CE), a powerful queen of the Chahamana dynasty in present-day Rajasthan, India. She was known for her military prowess and played a significant role in expanding the kingdom's territory.
Another notable figure is Nira Radia (born 1962), an Indian corporate lobbyist and businesswoman who was at the center of a high-profile controversy in 2010, known as the "Radia Tapes" scandal. The leaked audio recordings revealed her alleged involvement in influencing government policies and decisions.
In the field of literature, Nira Yuval-Davis (born 1945) is a British-Israeli sociologist and professor emerita at the University of East London. She is renowned for her work on gender, race, and diaspora studies, and has authored several influential books on these topics.
Nira Wickramasinghe (born 1964) is a Sri Lankan author and academic, known for her novels and short stories that explore themes of identity, migration, and cultural displacement. Her novel "Intimate Strangers" won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2003.
Nira Singhal (1953–2013) was an Indian actress and dancer who had a successful career in both Hindi and Kannada films. She is remembered for her performances in popular movies such as "Shaan" and "Qurbani" in the 1970s and 1980s.
While the name Nira has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Hindu culture, it has gained popularity across various regions and communities over time, transcending its linguistic and cultural boundaries.
People
Nira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nira 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
Nira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 470 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nira 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 729,265 US residents.
Is Nira a common name?
We classify Nira as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 783 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nira most popular?
The single biggest year for Nira was 1933, when 207 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nira is about 33 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 834 people with the name Nira, or 0.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,190 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 Nira 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 Nira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nira appears almost entirely female. Of the 831 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Nira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nira is White at 43.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (24.8%) and Black (15.0%). 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 Nira most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.5% (363 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 Nira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nira a female name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Nira 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 Nira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nira 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 Nira 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 Nira?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.