Nuriya
A feminine Arabic name meaning "light" or "illumination".
Name Census estimates that about 142 living Americans carry the first name Nuriya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nuriya today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nuriya births was 2024 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nuriya. 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 Nuriya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
142
~ 1 in 2,413,763 Americans
Peak year
2024
20 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,079
Tracked since 2007
Census
Nuriya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 202 people with the first name Nuriya, which placed it at #38,178 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
#38,178
National first-name rank
People counted
202
202 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
39.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nuriya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nuriya is Black at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (27.2%) and White (25.2%). 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 Nuriya 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 Nuriya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American39.1% · 79
- Asian and Pacific Islander27.2% · 55
- White25.2% · 51
- Two or more races6.9% · 14
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.5% · 1
Popularity
Nuriya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nuriya 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 69 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
Nuriya 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 Nuriya 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 Nuriya
The name Nuriya has its origins in the Persian language and culture, with roots dating back to ancient Persia (modern-day Iran) and the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE). The name is derived from the Persian word "nur," meaning "light" or "radiance," and is believed to have been used as a name for both males and females during this time period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nuriya can be found in the Avesta, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, which were composed between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. In these texts, there are references to individuals with names similar to Nuriya, such as Nuredin and Nuradin, suggesting that the name or variations of it were in use during this era.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Nuriya gained popularity in various parts of the Persian cultural sphere, including regions of Central Asia and parts of the Indian subcontinent that were influenced by Persian culture. During this time, several notable individuals bore the name Nuriya, including Nuriya al-Baghdadi, a renowned Persian scholar and poet who lived in the 9th century CE.
As the Persian influence spread further, the name Nuriya also found its way into other cultures and languages. In the Ottoman Empire, for example, there were several individuals named Nuriya, such as Nuriya Efendi, a 17th-century Ottoman scholar and poet.
In more recent history, the name Nuriya has been associated with a number of influential figures. Nuriya Ginghis Khan, a 19th-century Uzbek poet and writer, was a prominent figure in the literary circles of Central Asia. Nuriya Sultanova, born in 1917, was a celebrated Uzbek singer and actress who made significant contributions to the performing arts in the Soviet Union.
Another notable individual with the name Nuriya was Nuriya Khazarovna Fayzullina, a Soviet mathematician and computer scientist who lived from 1920 to 2009. She made significant contributions to the field of programming languages and was recognized for her work in developing the first high-level programming language for computers in the Soviet Union.
While the name Nuriya has its roots in ancient Persian culture, it has transcended geographical and cultural boundaries, appearing in various forms and spellings throughout history. From ancient religious texts to modern literary and scientific figures, the name Nuriya has left its mark on various societies and cultures around the world.
People
Nuriya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nuriya 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
Nuriya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nuriya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 142 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nuriya 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 2,413,763 US residents.
Is Nuriya a common name?
We classify Nuriya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 69.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 143 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nuriya most popular?
The single biggest year for Nuriya was 2024, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nuriya 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 Nuriya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 202 people with the name Nuriya, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,178 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 Nuriya 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 Nuriya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nuriya appears almost entirely female. Of the 197 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Nuriya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nuriya is Black at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (27.2%) and White (25.2%). 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 Nuriya most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nuriya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.1% (79 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 Nuriya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nuriya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nuriya in the SSA data are female. 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 Nuriya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nuriya 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 Nuriya 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 Americans are named Nuriya?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.