Name Awesome

Niraj

Boys' name

Water-born, lotus

Niraj has been given to 331 babies in the U.S. since 1970. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1991, with 17 recorded.

Babies named Niraj, 2019

1 in 496,000

Niraj over time, 1880–2025

Boys
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Niraj: meaning, origin, and history

Water-born, lotus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Niraj means

Niraj means “water-born, lotus”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Niraj is used in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Nepali.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 331 boys were recorded with the name Niraj between 1970 and 2019. Its highest annual count was 17 in 1991; its best national rank was #3,169 in 1981.

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 Niraj?

Niraj had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2019, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2019
1 in 496,000
7 of 3,472,229 births
Among boys only
1 in 256,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2019
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
343,825 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Niraj sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2019 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 343,825 children born in 2019 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Niraj. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nirajs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Niraj was born before 1988 — so the typical Niraj is around 37 today.

Median birth year
1988
About 37 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
32.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
27.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
331
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 32.6% of all recorded uses (108).

Is Niraj 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1991 (17)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#3,169
1981

Spellings of Niraj

Niraj is not the most common spelling — Ira is, with 63.6% against Niraj's 0.38%.

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 Niraj is used

Across 1910–2025, Niraj was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,743,270 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Niraj has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Niraj around the world

Where Niraj 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
    1996–2021
    #4,789
    in 2021
  • France
    2017–2023
    #5,162
    in 2023
  • Canada
    1992–1992
    #1,557
    in 1992
  • South Australia
    2002–2002
    #606
    in 2002

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.

Niraj by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,169
1981
Peak year
1991
17 that year
First recorded
1970
Last recorded
2019
All-time count
331
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Niraj

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

NiravNirvanMirajSirajNirvairVrajNirvaanAvirajManrajNirvikSurajJasrajNavrajAvrajVirajNirvedDilrajNeerajNirYuvrajNiranNirvayAbhirajSeraj

Sibling names for Niraj

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 Niraj

Top names of 1991, Niraj's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1981Boys' names starting with NNepali Boy NamesNepali Names