Noah
A masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "rest" or "repose".
Our analysis of Social Security Administration records puts the number of living Americans named Noah at approximately 498,887. That places it at #2 in the national ranking of first names. It is a predominantly male name (99.1% of registrations). The average person named Noah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Noah births was 2024 (20,876 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Kelly (494,171).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Noah. 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 Noah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Noah is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,547 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Noah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
499K
~ 1 in 687 Americans
Peak year
2024
20,876 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2
Tracked since 1880
Census
Noah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 372,418 people with the first name Noah, which placed it at #129 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
#129
National first-name rank
People counted
372K
372,418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
123.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Noah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noah is White at 62.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.5%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Noah 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 Noah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.3% · 231,949
- Hispanic or Latino19.5% · 72,779
- Black or African American7.7% · 28,787
- Two or more races6.7% · 24,895
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 11,577
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2,431
Gender
Gender distribution for Noah
Out of the 513,572 babies given the name Noah since 1880, 99.1% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Noah as a male name
- Ranked #2 in 2024
- 20,337 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (20,337 births)
Noah as a female name
- Ranked #561 in 2024
- 539 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (539 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Noah appears almost entirely male. Of the 372,421 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Noah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Noah from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 184,595 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Noah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Noah 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 Noah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Noahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Noah, while Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9,944 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Noah
The name Noah has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, traced back to biblical times. It derives from the Hebrew word "noach," meaning "rest" or "repose." The name is most famously associated with the biblical figure Noah, the righteous man who built an ark to save his family and a pair of every animal species during the Great Flood, as recounted in the Book of Genesis.
In the Old Testament, Noah is portrayed as a patriarch who found favor with God due to his righteousness. He is celebrated for his obedience and faith in following divine instructions to construct the ark, which ultimately preserved life on Earth after the devastating flood. The name Noah has thus become a symbol of salvation, perseverance, and new beginnings.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Noah can be traced back to ancient Hebrew texts, including the Torah and other biblical scriptures. Throughout history, the name has been embraced by various cultures and religions, particularly within the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, where Noah is revered as a significant prophet.
Several notable historical figures have borne the name Noah. One of the earliest was Noah Webster (1758-1843), an American lexicographer renowned for publishing the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Another prominent Noah was Noah Haynes Swayne (1804-1884), an American jurist who served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the realm of literature, Noah Gordon (1926-2021) was an American novelist best known for his historical fiction works, including "The Physician" and "The Last Jew." Noah Lukeman (born 1975) is a contemporary American author and literary agent, celebrated for his books on the craft of writing.
In the field of music, Noah Kalina (born 1980) is an American photographer and video artist, renowned for his innovative time-lapse self-portrait project spanning over a decade. Noah Preminger (born 1986) is a contemporary American saxophonist and composer who has gained recognition for his contributions to the jazz genre.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Noah
People
Noah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Noah 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
Noah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Noah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 498,887 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Noah 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 687 US residents.
Is Noah a common name?
We classify Noah as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 513,572 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Noah most popular?
The single biggest year for Noah was 2024, when 20,876 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Noah 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 Noah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 372,418 people with the name Noah, or 123.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #129 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 Noah 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 Noah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Noah appears almost entirely male. Of the 372,421 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Noah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noah is White at 62.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.5%) and Black (7.7%). 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 Noah most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Noah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.3% (231,949 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 Noah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Noah a male name?
Yes, 99.1% of people registered as Noah 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 Noah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Noah 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 Noah 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 have Noah as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.