Nuh
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "rest" or "peace".
Name Census estimates that about 294 living Americans carry the first name Nuh. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nuh today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nuh births was 2024 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nuh. 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 Nuh with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
294
~ 1 in 1,165,831 Americans
Peak year
2024
33 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,490
Tracked since 2004
Census
Nuh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 228 people with the first name Nuh, which placed it at #35,335 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
#35,335
National first-name rank
People counted
228
228 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
42.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nuh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nuh is Black at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%). 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 Nuh 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 Nuh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American42.5% · 97
- White28.5% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.2% · 46
- Two or more races5.7% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 7
Popularity
Nuh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nuh 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 140 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nuh 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 Nuh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nuhs live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nuh
The name Nuh has its origins in the Semitic languages of the Middle East. It is derived from the Arabic and Hebrew word meaning "rest" or "repose". The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to ancient times, appearing in the Quran and the Bible.
In the Quran, Nuh is the Arabic rendering of the name Noah, the prophet who built the ark and survived the great flood. The story of Nuh is detailed in the Quran's chapters 7, 10, 11, 23, and 26. He is revered as one of the most important prophets in Islam.
The Biblical account of Noah also features the name Nuh. In the Book of Genesis, Noah is chosen by God to build an ark and save his family and pairs of animals from the flood that would wipe out the rest of humanity. After the flood waters receded, Noah and his family became the ancestors of all future generations.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Nuh was Nuh ibn Mansur, a 9th century Muslim scholar and author from Merv, a city in what is now modern-day Turkmenistan. He wrote extensively on theology and Islamic jurisprudence.
In the 12th century, there was Nuh ibn Nasr, an Arabic poet and writer from Baghdad. He is best known for his anthology of Arabic poetry, which remains an important source for the study of classical Arabic literature.
Another notable figure was Nuh ibn Mustafa, a 16th century Ottoman statesman and grand vizier who served under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He played a key role in the Ottoman Empire's expansion and consolidation of power in the Middle East and the Balkans.
In the 19th century, Nuh Effendi was a prominent Ottoman bureaucrat and diplomat who served as the Ottoman ambassador to several European countries, including France and Britain.
Finally, in the 20th century, there was Nuh Ha Mim Keller, an American Muslim scholar and translator who is best known for his translation of the classic Sunni textbook on Islamic jurisprudence, Reliance of the Traveller.
People
Nuh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nuh 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
Nuh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nuh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 294 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nuh 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 1,165,831 US residents.
Is Nuh a common name?
We classify Nuh as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 296 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nuh most popular?
The single biggest year for Nuh was 2024, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nuh is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nuh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 228 people with the name Nuh, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,335 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 Nuh 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 Nuh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nuh leans strongly male. 221 people counted with this name were male (96.1%), compared with 9 female bearers (3.9%). 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 Nuh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nuh is Black at 42.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.2%). 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 Nuh most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nuh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.5% (97 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 Nuh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nuh a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nuh 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 Nuh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nuh 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 Nuh 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 called Nuh?
You can see how many people share the name Nuh on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.