Nolin
A unisex name with uncertain origins, possibly of Irish or Aboriginal Australian derivation.
Name Census estimates that about 468 living Americans carry the first name Nolin. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nolin today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nolin births was 2011 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nolin. 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.
People living today
468
~ 1 in 732,381 Americans
Peak year
2011
24 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,077
Tracked since 1918
Census
Nolin in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 471 people with the first name Nolin, which placed it at #21,522 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
#21,522
National first-name rank
People counted
471
471 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nolin
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nolin is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and Black (8.9%). 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 Nolin 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 Nolin at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.8% · 324
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 45
- Black or African American8.9% · 42
- Two or more races6.4% · 30
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 5
Popularity
Nolin: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nolin from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 186 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nolin remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nolin 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 Nolin during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nolin
The name Nolin is of uncertain origin, though it is believed to have roots in various cultures and languages. One possible source is the Old Norse name Nökkvi, which means "boat" or "ship." This would suggest that the name was initially used by seafaring Viking communities in Scandinavia during the medieval period.
Another theory traces Nolin back to the Old French name Noël or Noelin, which means "born on Christmas day." This name was popular among Christians in France and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, as it celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ.
Nolin may also be derived from the Gaelic name Nuallain, which means "roaring" or "loud." This could indicate an origin among the Celtic peoples of Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, where the name may have been used to describe someone with a powerful voice or presence.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nolin can be found in the Domesday Book, a great survey of land ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Here, a landowner named Nolin is mentioned as holding estates in Gloucestershire.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Nolin. In the 12th century, Nolin de Vaux was a French knight who participated in the Third Crusade and fought alongside Richard the Lionheart. In the 16th century, Nolin Lebreton was a French navigator and cartographer who created some of the earliest maps of the Americas.
During the Renaissance, Nolin Petri was a Swedish painter and engraver who produced religious artworks for churches and nobility in the 16th century. In the 18th century, Nolin Soley was a French architect who designed several notable buildings in Paris, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
In more recent times, Nolin Hurlbut was an American artist and illustrator who lived from 1839 to 1904 and was known for his intricate pen-and-ink drawings of landscapes and wildlife.
People
Nolin + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nolin 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
Nolin: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nolin?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 468 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nolin 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 732,381 US residents.
Is Nolin a common name?
We classify Nolin as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 497 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nolin most popular?
The single biggest year for Nolin was 2011, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nolin 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 Nolin in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 471 people with the name Nolin, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,522 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 Nolin 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 Nolin?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nolin leans strongly male. 438 people counted with this name were male (94.8%), compared with 24 female bearers (5.2%). 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 Nolin?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nolin is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and Black (8.9%). 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 Nolin most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nolin in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.8% (324 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 Nolin in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nolin a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nolin 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 Nolin still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nolin 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 Nolin 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 Nolin?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.