Nooh
A masculine Arabic name of Hebrew origin meaning "rest" or "peace".
Name Census estimates that about 106 living Americans carry the first name Nooh. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nooh today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nooh births was 2024 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nooh. 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 Nooh with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
106
~ 1 in 3,233,531 Americans
Peak year
2024
13 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,696
Tracked since 2008
Popularity
Nooh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nooh from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nooh remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nooh 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 Nooh 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 Nooh
The name Nooh is derived from the Arabic language and has its origins in the ancient Semitic cultures of the Middle East. It is a variant spelling of the Biblical name Noah, which is derived from the Hebrew word "noach," meaning "rest" or "comfort."
In the Abrahamic religions, Nooh (Noah) is a revered figure, known as a prophet in Islam and a patriarch in Judaism and Christianity. He is prominently featured in the sacred texts of these religions, including the Quran, the Bible, and the Torah. According to these texts, Nooh was chosen by God to build an ark and save humanity and the animals from a great flood.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nooh can be found in the Quran, where it is mentioned numerous times in reference to the prophet Noah. In the Islamic tradition, Nooh is highly revered as one of the most important prophets and his story is central to the teachings of the religion.
Throughout history, the name Nooh has been borne by several notable individuals. One of the earliest was Nooh Al-Habashi, a renowned Muslim scholar and poet who lived in the 9th century CE in present-day Iraq. Another was Nooh Al-Maqdisi, a prominent Islamic jurist and theologian from the 11th century CE, who hailed from Jerusalem.
In the modern era, Nooh Al-Qudah was a Jordanian politician and diplomat who served as the Prime Minister of Jordan from 1997 to 1998. Nooh Salman Al-Ghamdi was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar and teacher who lived in the 20th century and was known for his expertise in Quranic recitation.
Perhaps one of the most famous bearers of the name Nooh in recent times was Nooh Kalantari, an Iranian-American artist and sculptor who was born in 1896 and died in 1991. His works are celebrated for their unique blend of Persian and Western artistic styles, and he is regarded as one of the most influential Iranian artists of the 20th century.
People
Nooh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nooh 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
Nooh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nooh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nooh 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 3,233,531 US residents.
Is Nooh a common name?
We classify Nooh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 107 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nooh most popular?
The single biggest year for Nooh was 2024, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nooh is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Nooh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nooh a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nooh 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 Nooh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nooh 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 Nooh 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people have Nooh as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.