Name Awesome

Nailah

#1,829 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Nailah has been given to 4,848 babies in the U.S. since 1971. In 2025 it ranked #1,829 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2018, with 256 recorded.

Babies named Nailah, 2025

1 in 30,100

Nailah over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nailah: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nailah means

Nailah is a given name.

The naming story behind Nailah

Wikidata records Nailah as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q98594599, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,848 girls were recorded with the name Nailah between 1971 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 256 in 2018; its best national rank was #1,016 in 2018.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,229 in 2020 to #1,829 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,445 in 2015 to #1,829 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Nailah?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 30,100
110 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 14,600
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,829
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
20,891 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nailah sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 5002%

Put another way: gather 20,891 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nailah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nailahs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nailah was born before 2011 — so the typical Nailah is around 14 today.

Median birth year
2011
About 14 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
38.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
78.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
4,848
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 38.5% of all recorded uses (1,866).

Is Nailah rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−24
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−600
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−384
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.69×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
43.0%
Peak was 2018 (256)
Years since peak
7
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
11.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,016
2018

Spellings of Nailah

Nailah is not the most common spelling — Laila is, with 16.0% against Nailah's 1.8%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Nailah is used

Across 2016–2025, Nailah was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 4,545 girls, against 1 in 8,821 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in 50,000).

222 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 4,545
  2. 2Florida1 in 4,762
  3. 3Georgia1 in 4,762
  4. 4Maryland1 in 5,882
  5. 5New Jersey1 in 6,250
  6. 6Pennsylvania1 in 6,667
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 7,143
  8. 8Texas1 in 9,091

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Nailah around the world

Where Nailah ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2025
    #922
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2025–2025
    #780
    in 2025
  • France
    2008–2025
    #3,178
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1996–2024
    #2,104
    in 2024

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Nailah

People whose public names include Nailah, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Nailah by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,829
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 600
Best rank ever
#1,016
2018
Peak year
2018
256 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,848
Count in 2025
110

Names similar to Nailah

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NaimaNaimahNaishaNailaNaileaLeilahNaiomiKaylahLailahLaylahAkilahSkylahNaidaNaiyaNairobiKailahJaylahDalilahNaiaraAnylahShylahKylahNaiariNaia

Names with a curve like Nailah

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Nailah, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JaelElaynaAliahHonestyAmiaKamilleEllyViviannaKalinaTahliaTaliahKalea

Sibling names for Nailah

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nailah

Top names of 2018, Nailah's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2018Girls' names starting with N