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Nairobi

#1,870 in 2025Girls' name

Cold water

Nairobi has been given to 1,596 babies in the U.S. since 1983. In 2025 it ranked #1,870 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 242 recorded.

Babies named Nairobi, 2025

1 in 31,300

Nairobi over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nairobi: meaning, origin, and history

Cold water

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nairobi means

Nairobi means “cold water”.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,561 girls were recorded with the name Nairobi between 1983 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 242 in 2021; its best national rank was #1,043 in 2021.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,124 in 2020 to #1,870 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #8,306 in 2015 to #1,870 in 2025.

In the United States, 35 boys were recorded with the name Nairobi between 1971 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 9 in 1999; its best national rank was #5,399 in 1976.

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 Nairobi?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 31,300
106 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 15,200
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,870
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
21,679 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nairobi 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 21,679 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nairobi. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nairobis were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nairobi was born before 2021 — so the typical Nairobi is around 4 today.

Median birth year
2021
About 4 years old
Biggest decade
2020s
70.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
92.6%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,561
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2020s — 70.9% of all recorded uses (1,107).

Is Nairobi 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
−329
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−746
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+6,436
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
7.57×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
43.8%
Peak was 2021 (242)
Years since peak
4
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
51.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,043
2021

Spellings of Nairobi

Nairobi is the most-used spelling, taking 56.7% of the 2,751 babies given a near-identical spelling.

  • Nairobi56.7%1,561
  • Naiomi43.3%1,190

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 Nairobi is used

Across 2016–2025, Nairobi was most concentrated in Arizona — about 1 in 7,692 girls, against 1 in 12,748 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 50,000).

213 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arizona1 in 7,692
  2. 2Georgia1 in 8,333
  3. 3Florida1 in 9,091
  4. 4Illinois1 in 9,091
  5. 5North Carolina1 in 9,091
  6. 6California1 in 10,000
  7. 7Texas1 in 10,000
  8. 8New York1 in 12,500

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.

Nairobi around the world

Where Nairobi 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
    2020–2025
    #5,927
    in 2025
  • France
    2020–2022
    #6,540
    in 2022

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

Nairobi by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,870
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 746
Best rank ever
#1,043
2021
Peak year
2021
242 that year
First recorded
1983
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,561
Count in 2025
106

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#5,399
1976
Peak year
1999
9 that year
First recorded
1971
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
35
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nairobi

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

NaishaNaimahNaileaNaiomiNailaniNaidelynNaiyaNaidaNaiaraNainikaNaiariNailahNairaNaiyahNainaNailaNaileahNaiaNaimaNaijahNairobyNaijaNaiyeliNairi

Sibling names for Nairobi

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 Nairobi

Top names of 2021, Nairobi's peak yearThe 2020s in fullOther names that peaked in 2021Girls' names starting with N