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Nubia

#5,061 in 2025Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Nubia has been given to 2,406 babies in the U.S. since 1969. In 2025 it ranked #5,061 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1993, with 83 recorded.

Babies named Nubia, 2025

1 in 128,000

Nubia over time, 1880–2025

Girls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nubia: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nubia means

Nubia is a given name.

The naming story behind Nubia

Wikidata records Nubia as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q20000862, 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, 2,406 girls were recorded with the name Nubia between 1969 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 83 in 1993; its best national rank was #1,769 in 1993.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,575 in 2020 to #5,061 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,581 in 2015 to #5,061 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 Nubia?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 128,000
26 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 61,800
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#5,061
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
88,382 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nubia 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 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 88,382 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nubia. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nubias were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nubia was born before 2001 — so the typical Nubia is around 24 today.

Median birth year
2001
About 24 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
24.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
51.1%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
2,406
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 24.5% of all recorded uses (590).

Is Nubia 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
−791
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,486
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,480
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.59×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
31.3%
Peak was 1993 (83)
Years since peak
32
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,769
1993

Spellings of Nubia

Nubia is not the most common spelling — Julia is, with 71.1% against Nubia's 0.36%.

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 Nubia is used

Across 1910–2025, Nubia was most concentrated in Arizona — about 1 in 20,000 girls, against 1 in 52,939 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in —).

05 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arizona1 in 20,000
  2. 2California1 in 25,000
  3. 3Texas1 in 33,333
  4. 4Florida1 in 100,000
  5. 5New York1 in 100,000
  6. 6Colorado1 in —
  7. 7Georgia1 in —
  8. 8Illinois1 in —

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. Nubia has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nubia around the world

Where Nubia 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
    2004–2024
    #5,892
    in 2024
  • France
    1989–2022
    #6,868
    in 2022
  • Canada
    2008–2008
    #3,151
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS 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 Nubia

People whose public names include Nubia, 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.

Nubia by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#5,061
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,486
Best rank ever
#1,769
1993
Peak year
1993
83 that year
First recorded
1969
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,406
Count in 2025
26

Names similar to Nubia

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

RabiaAnabiaZenobiaTabiaArabiaBiaNubeEusebiaLibiaColumbiaElbiaNubianSobiaAbiaRubiaRebiaYubiaShelbiaZobiaZanobiaLesbiaSilbiaNobiaFabia

Names with a curve like Nubia

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

SaharBradyIndiraNohemiKaycieArynPassionJessyAmberleeJamilahKeziaElisia

Sibling names for Nubia

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 Nubia

Top names of 1993, Nubia's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1993Girls' names starting with N