Nilah
#3,756 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Nilah has been given to 1,420 babies in the U.S. since 1916. In 2025 it ranked #3,756 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2012, with 84 recorded.
Babies named Nilah, 2025
1 in 82,900
Nilah over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Nilah?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 82,900
- 40 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 40,200
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #3,756
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 57,449 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Nilah sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 57,449 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nilah. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Nilahs were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Nilah was born before 2013 — so the typical Nilah is around 12 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 50.0% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 88.5%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 1,295
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 50.0% of all recorded uses (710).
Is Nilah 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
- +878
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −1,051
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −1,210
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.56×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 47.6%
- Peak was 2012 (84)
- Years since peak
- 13
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 17.1% average annual change
Spellings of Nilah
Nilah is not the most common spelling — Nina is, with 17.6% against Nilah's 0.19%.
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 Nilah is used
Across 2016–2025, Nilah was most concentrated in North Carolina — about 1 in 25,000 girls, against 1 in 64,125 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in 100,000).
Most concentrated
- 1North Carolina1 in 25,000
- 2Alabama1 in 33,333
- 3Tennessee1 in 33,333
- 4Florida1 in 50,000
- 5Michigan1 in 50,000
- 6California1 in 100,000
- 7Georgia1 in 100,000
- 8New York1 in 100,000
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.
Nilah around the world
Where Nilah 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 & Wales2008–2025#3,705in 2025
- France2011–2022#6,839in 2022
- Canada2022–2022#3,322in 2022
- South Australia2012–2012#871in 2012
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Nilah by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
Names similar to Nilah
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Nilah
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.