Noe
Of Biblical origin, meaning "rest" or "wanderer".
Name Census estimates that about 21,976 living Americans carry the first name Noe. It is a predominantly male name (98.2% of registrations). The average person named Noe today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Noe births was 2007 (646 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Noe. 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 Noe with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Noe is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 421 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,597 Americans
Peak year
2007
646 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#768
Tracked since 1914
Census
Noe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 33,231 people with the first name Noe, which placed it at #1,186 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
#1,186
National first-name rank
People counted
33K
33,231 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
11.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Noe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noe is Hispanic at 95.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Noe 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 Noe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.2% · 31,639
- White2.6% · 876
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 337
- Black or African American0.7% · 228
- Two or more races0.4% · 118
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 33
Gender
Gender distribution for Noe
Noe leans heavily male at 98.2% of total registrations, but 421 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Noe as a male name
- Ranked #768 in 2024
- 328 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2007 (635 births)
Noe as a female name
- Ranked #7,475 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Noe leans strongly male. 32,734 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 499 female bearers (1.5%).
Popularity
Noe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Noe from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 5,654 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Noe remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Noe 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 Noe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Noes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 34 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Noe, while Pennsylvania, Ohio, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 611 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Noe
The name Noe has its origins in the Hebrew language and culture, dating back to ancient times. It is derived from the Hebrew word "noach," meaning "rest" or "repose." The name gained significant historical and religious prominence through the biblical figure Noah, the patriarch who built the ark and survived the Great Flood, as described in the Book of Genesis.
Noe is a spelling variation of Noah, which is the more common English version of the name. In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), Noah is portrayed as a righteous man chosen by God to save humanity and the animal species from the destructive flood. His story is central to Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Noe can be found in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In this text, Noah's name is rendered as "Noe." This variation likely arose due to the differences in pronunciation and transliteration between Hebrew and Greek.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Noe. In the 4th century, Saint Noe was a Christian martyr who was executed during the Roman persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian. Another notable bearer of the name was Noe the Younger, a 7th-century Byzantine writer and poet.
In the realm of literature, Noe appears as a character in Dante Alighieri's epic poem "Divine Comedy," written in the early 14th century. Dante portrays Noe as the builder of the ark, highlighting his role in the biblical narrative.
During the Renaissance, the name Noe gained popularity among artists and intellectuals. Noe Bamert (c. 1460-1501) was a Swiss painter and woodcarver known for his intricate altarpieces and sculptures. Noe Meir (1567-1622), a Jewish scholar and rabbi, made significant contributions to the study of Hebrew grammar and biblical exegesis.
In more recent centuries, notable figures with the name Noe include Noe Zhordania (1869-1953), a Georgian politician and prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, and Noe Ramirez (1908-1979), a Mexican baseball player and manager.
While the name Noe has been historically associated with various cultures and religions, its Hebrew origins and biblical connections have played a significant role in shaping its meaning and significance over time.
People
Noe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Noe 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
Noe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Noe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,976 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Noe 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 15,597 US residents.
Is Noe a common name?
We classify Noe as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 23,571 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Noe most popular?
The single biggest year for Noe was 2007, when 646 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Noe is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Noe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 33,231 people with the name Noe, or 11.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,186 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 Noe 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 Noe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Noe leans strongly male. 32,734 people counted with this name were male (98.5%), compared with 499 female bearers (1.5%). 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 Noe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noe is Hispanic at 95.2%. The next largest groups are White (2.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.0%). 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 Noe most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Noe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.2% (31,639 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 Noe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Noe a male name?
Yes, 98.2% of people registered as Noe 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 Noe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Noe 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 Noe 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 are named Noe?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.