Naftali
Naftali was given to 58 boys in 2025, #2,379 among boys’ names; 2,024 Americans have been recorded with it since 1951 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,960 Americans named Naftali and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 8 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Naftali by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Naftali?
#2,379 among boys’ names, 2025
Naftali fell from #2,268 in 2015 to #2,379 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 30.8 to 34.0 per million.
83 babies in 2018, the peak
Naftali peaked in 2018, when 83 boys were given it, #1,830 among boys’ names. The 58 births of 2025 are 70% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 58 | #2,379 | 34.0 |
| 2024 | 73 | #2,073 | 42.4 |
| 2023 | 75 | #2,023 | 43.8 |
| 2022 | 74 | #2,056 | 42.4 |
| 2021 | 61 | #2,291 | 34.9 |
| 2020 | 67 | #2,108 | 38.8 |
| 2019 | 68 | #2,120 | 37.9 |
| 2018 | 83 | #1,830 | 45.7 |
| 2017 | 49 | #2,587 | 26.5 |
| 2016 | 52 | #2,460 | 27.4 |
Every recorded year (65)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 59 | #2,268 | 30.8 |
| 2014 | 59 | #2,265 | 30.7 |
| 2013 | 46 | #2,613 | 24.3 |
| 2012 | 57 | #2,285 | 30.0 |
| 2011 | 37 | #3,089 | 19.5 |
| 2010 | 40 | #2,945 | 20.8 |
| 2009 | 64 | #2,134 | 32.3 |
| 2008 | 55 | #2,368 | 27.0 |
| 2007 | 45 | #2,709 | 21.7 |
| 2006 | 70 | #1,936 | 34.1 |
| 2005 | 66 | #1,934 | 33.0 |
| 2004 | 27 | #3,510 | 13.6 |
| 2003 | 35 | #2,825 | 17.7 |
| 2002 | 23 | #3,737 | 11.8 |
| 2001 | 21 | #3,930 | 10.8 |
| 2000 | 30 | #2,963 | 15.3 |
| 1999 | 21 | #3,660 | 10.9 |
| 1998 | 27 | #2,988 | 14.1 |
| 1997 | 38 | #2,247 | 20.2 |
| 1996 | 28 | #2,723 | 14.8 |
| 1995 | 16 | #3,990 | 8.4 |
| 1994 | 22 | #3,176 | 11.4 |
| 1993 | 28 | #2,620 | 14.3 |
| 1992 | 28 | #2,579 | 14.0 |
| 1991 | 19 | #3,285 | 9.4 |
| 1990 | 26 | #2,591 | 12.7 |
| 1989 | 20 | #3,048 | 10.0 |
| 1988 | 21 | #2,735 | 11.0 |
| 1987 | 22 | #2,526 | 11.8 |
| 1986 | 25 | #2,268 | 13.6 |
| 1985 | 20 | #2,567 | 10.8 |
| 1984 | 7 | #5,383 | 3.9 |
| 1983 | 17 | #2,755 | 9.5 |
| 1982 | 15 | #3,059 | 8.3 |
| 1981 | 18 | #2,644 | 10.0 |
| 1980 | 24 | #2,195 | 13.5 |
| 1979 | 17 | #2,740 | 9.9 |
| 1978 | 21 | #2,251 | 12.8 |
| 1977 | 16 | #2,753 | 9.7 |
| 1976 | 12 | #3,201 | 7.6 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,714 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,495 | 6.4 |
| 1972 | 11 | #3,091 | 6.8 |
| 1971 | 10 | #3,289 | 5.7 |
| 1970 | 12 | #2,831 | 6.5 |
| 1969 | 8 | #3,499 | 4.5 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,901 | 3.0 |
| 1962 | 10 | #2,792 | 4.8 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,935 | 2.8 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,933 | 2.8 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,388 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,808 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,463 | 3.2 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,102 | 2.6 |
| 1951 | 5 | #4,086 | 2.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Naftali a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Naftali has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 65 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Naftali: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Naftali, and how old are they?
1,960 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,024 Americans ever recorded as Naftali. The median Naftali alive today is 17 years old; half are between 8 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 1,483 people named Naftali (40 women and girls, 1,443 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,589 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 41 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 141 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 316 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 646 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 818 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Naftali born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 26 | #597 | 10.0× |
| New Jersey | 21 | #392 | 5.4× |
Where Naftali is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Naftali is most over-represented in New York: since 1951 it was given 10.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Naftali with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 3,742 babies since 1880, Naftali is the most given (54% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 109 babies (53%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Naftali
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Naftali and names like it
- Compare Naftali and NaftuliBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNaftali peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Naftali since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Naftali.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Naftali alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.