Nahum
Nahum was given to 58 boys in 2025, #2,380 among boys’ names; 2,197 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,140 Americans named Nahum and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 9 and 26.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nahum by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nahum mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nahum is “a male given name from Hebrew of biblical origin.” Its etymology gives the sense “consolation” (נַחוּם).
Derived from Hebrew נַחוּם (nakhúm, “consolation”).
/ˈneɪəm/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nahum?
#2,380 among boys’ names, 2025
Nahum fell from #2,158 in 2015 to #2,380 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 33.4 to 34.0 per million.
85 babies in 2007, the peak
Nahum peaked in 2007, when 85 boys were given it, #1,756 among boys’ names. The 58 births of 2025 are 68% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 58 | #2,380 | 34.0 |
| 2024 | 63 | #2,279 | 36.6 |
| 2023 | 71 | #2,087 | 41.5 |
| 2022 | 48 | #2,741 | 27.5 |
| 2021 | 55 | #2,451 | 31.4 |
| 2020 | 44 | #2,788 | 25.5 |
| 2019 | 65 | #2,182 | 36.2 |
| 2018 | 66 | #2,131 | 36.3 |
| 2017 | 71 | #2,011 | 38.4 |
| 2016 | 58 | #2,296 | 30.6 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 64 | #2,158 | 33.4 |
| 2014 | 67 | #2,090 | 34.9 |
| 2013 | 67 | #2,035 | 35.4 |
| 2012 | 74 | #1,933 | 39.0 |
| 2011 | 76 | #1,854 | 40.0 |
| 2010 | 59 | #2,228 | 30.8 |
| 2009 | 73 | #1,953 | 36.8 |
| 2008 | 82 | #1,810 | 40.2 |
| 2007 | 85 | #1,756 | 41.0 |
| 2006 | 79 | #1,764 | 38.4 |
| 2005 | 77 | #1,731 | 38.6 |
| 2004 | 59 | #2,040 | 29.7 |
| 2003 | 61 | #1,922 | 30.9 |
| 2002 | 50 | #2,139 | 25.8 |
| 2001 | 38 | #2,546 | 19.6 |
| 2000 | 44 | #2,238 | 22.4 |
| 1999 | 45 | #2,126 | 23.4 |
| 1998 | 38 | #2,336 | 19.9 |
| 1997 | 25 | #3,032 | 13.3 |
| 1996 | 48 | #1,889 | 25.3 |
| 1995 | 31 | #2,475 | 16.3 |
| 1994 | 39 | #2,103 | 20.2 |
| 1993 | 17 | #3,762 | 8.7 |
| 1992 | 18 | #3,554 | 9.0 |
| 1991 | 20 | #3,185 | 9.9 |
| 1990 | 24 | #2,747 | 11.7 |
| 1989 | 21 | #2,960 | 10.5 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,361 | 5.7 |
| 1987 | 16 | #3,157 | 8.6 |
| 1986 | 13 | #3,586 | 7.1 |
| 1985 | 12 | #3,728 | 6.5 |
| 1984 | 13 | #3,393 | 7.2 |
| 1983 | 14 | #3,179 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 9 | #4,471 | 5.0 |
| 1981 | 13 | #3,351 | 7.3 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,807 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 11 | #3,735 | 6.4 |
| 1978 | 8 | #4,430 | 4.9 |
| 1977 | 13 | #3,144 | 7.9 |
| 1976 | 13 | #3,039 | 8.3 |
| 1975 | 5 | #6,026 | 3.2 |
| 1974 | 10 | #3,496 | 6.4 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,360 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 8 | #3,851 | 4.9 |
| 1971 | 7 | #4,241 | 4.0 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,494 | 3.3 |
| 1953 | 6 | #3,675 | 3.0 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,104 | 5.5 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,601 | 6.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nahum a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nahum has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 59 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nahum: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nahum, and how old are they?
2,140 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,197 Americans ever recorded as Nahum. The median Nahum alive today is 17 years old; half are between 9 and 26.
The 2020 Census counted 2,783 people named Nahum (31 women and girls, 2,752 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,823 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 82 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 305 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 950 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 791 |
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 Nahum born?
The states with the most babies named Nahum are Texas, California and Florida, with 81% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 11 | #1,623 | 1.8× |
| California | 8 | #1,940 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 6 | #1,776 | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,051 | 0.1× |
Where Nahum is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nahum is most over-represented in Texas: since 1918 it was given 1.8 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 Nahum 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,174 babies since 1880, Nahum is the second most given (22% of them). In 2025 it was given to 58 of their 290 babies (20%), the third most given that year.
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 Nahum
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 Nahum and names like it
- Compare Nahum and NaimBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNahum peaked in 2007.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nahum since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Nahum: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Nahum.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nahum alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.