Nisha
A feminine name of Indian origin meaning "night".
Name Census estimates that about 2,841 living Americans carry the first name Nisha. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nisha today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nisha births was 1984 (104 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nisha. 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 Nisha with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 120,646 Americans
Peak year
1984
104 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,550
Tracked since 1961
Census
Nisha in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,492 people with the first name Nisha, which placed it at #3,288 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
#3,288
National first-name rank
People counted
6.5K
6,492 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nisha
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nisha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.1%) and White (7.0%). 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 Nisha 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 Nisha at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander74.5% · 4,836
- Black or African American11.1% · 719
- White7.0% · 455
- Two or more races4.3% · 277
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 33
Popularity
Nisha: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nisha from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 846 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
Nisha 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 Nisha during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nishas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. California, New York, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Nisha, while Maryland, Massachusetts, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 112 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nisha
Nisha is a name that has its origins in Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages in the world, with roots dating back to around 1500 BC. It is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word "Nisha," which means "night" or "darkness." The name was likely given to children born at night or during a lunar eclipse, which was considered auspicious in ancient Indian culture.
The earliest known use of the name Nisha can be traced back to ancient Hindu scriptures and texts, such as the Vedas and the Puranas, where it was occasionally used as a feminine name or as a reference to the personification of night. However, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact time period or specific texts where the name first appeared.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Nisha was a Buddhist nun who lived in the 5th century AD. She was known for her spiritual teachings and is mentioned in several Buddhist texts from that era.
In the 11th century, a renowned poetess and mystic from Kashmir, India, named Nisha Ksemendra, gained recognition for her exceptional literary works and spiritual insights. Her writings have been preserved and studied by scholars over the centuries.
During the Mughal Empire in India, which spanned from the 16th to the 19th century, the name Nisha was occasionally used by members of the royal families and nobility. One notable figure was Nisha Begum, a princess and the daughter of Emperor Akbar, who lived in the late 16th century.
In more recent times, several prominent individuals have borne the name Nisha. Nisha Ganatra, born in 1974, is a Canadian-American film director and screenwriter known for her work on projects like "Chutney Popcorn" and "Late Night."
Another noteworthy individual is Nisha Sabrina Shirazi, an Afghan-American author and women's rights activist born in 1976, who has written extensively about her experiences growing up in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime.
While the name Nisha has its roots in ancient Sanskrit and Hindu culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and is now used by people of various backgrounds and ethnicities around the world.
People
Nisha + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nisha 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
Nisha: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nisha?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,841 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nisha 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 120,646 US residents.
Is Nisha a common name?
We classify Nisha as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,979 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nisha most popular?
The single biggest year for Nisha was 1984, when 104 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nisha is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nisha in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,492 people with the name Nisha, or 2.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,288 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 Nisha 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 Nisha?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nisha appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,498 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Nisha?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nisha is Asian/Pacific Islander at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.1%) and White (7.0%). 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 Nisha most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Nisha in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (4,836 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 Nisha in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nisha a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nisha 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 Nisha still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nisha 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 Nisha 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 Nisha?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Nisha at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.