Nailah
Nailah was given to 110 girls in 2025, #1,829 among girls’ names; 4,848 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,790 Americans named Nailah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 15 years old and half are between 8 and 23.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nailah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nailah?
#1,829 among girls’ names, 2025
Nailah fell from #1,445 in 2015 to #1,829 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 89.6 to 68.4 per million.
256 babies in 2018, the peak
Nailah peaked in 2018, when 256 girls were given it, #1,016 among girls’ names. The 110 births of 2025 are 43% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 110 | #1,829 | 0.07 |
| 2024 | 112 | #1,805 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 122 | #1,695 | 0.08 |
| 2022 | 140 | #1,536 | 0.09 |
| 2021 | 164 | #1,350 | 0.10 |
| 2020 | 186 | #1,229 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 231 | #1,086 | 0.14 |
| 2018 | 256 | #1,016 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 239 | #1,070 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 159 | #1,455 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 160 | #1,445 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 150 | #1,491 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 179 | #1,315 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 171 | #1,372 | 0.10 |
| 2011 | 171 | #1,353 | 0.10 |
| 2010 | 150 | #1,498 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 140 | #1,608 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 144 | #1,588 | 0.08 |
| 2007 | 137 | #1,632 | 0.07 |
| 2006 | 155 | #1,446 | 0.08 |
| 2005 | 134 | #1,537 | 0.07 |
| 2004 | 137 | #1,477 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 92 | #1,980 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 88 | #1,996 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 89 | #1,950 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 96 | #1,807 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 89 | #1,796 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 85 | #1,823 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 70 | #2,035 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 64 | #2,139 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 72 | #1,930 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 61 | #2,199 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 46 | #2,661 | 0.03 |
| 1992 | 44 | #2,756 | 0.02 |
| 1991 | 26 | #4,010 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 35 | #3,197 | 0.02 |
| 1989 | 26 | #3,851 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 22 | #4,117 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 23 | #3,822 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 17 | #4,666 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 23 | #3,695 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 14 | #5,128 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,815 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 18 | #4,278 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 18 | #4,277 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 30 | #2,976 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 21 | #3,741 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 18 | #4,024 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 27 | #2,969 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,909 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 17 | #3,884 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 12 | #4,921 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 13 | #4,513 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 8 | #6,370 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,180 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nailah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nailah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nailah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nailah, and how old are they?
4,790 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 4,848 Americans ever recorded as Nailah. The median Nailah alive today is 15 years old; half are between 8 and 23.
The 2020 Census counted 3,374 people named Nailah (3,365 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,020 born in the U.S. The Census count is 16% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 159 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 511 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,930 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,190 |
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 Nailah born?
The states with the most babies named Nailah are Texas, New York and Florida, with 49% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 12 | #1,876 | 0.7× |
| New York | 11 | #1,286 | 2.0× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,303 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,170 | 1.7× |
| California | 7 | #2,691 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | #1,343 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 5 | #1,301 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,564 | 0.8× |
| Maryland | 5 | #957 | 1.0× |
Where Nailah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nailah is most over-represented in New York: since 1971 it was given 2.0 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 girls’ 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 Nailah 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 24,831 babies since 1880, Nailah is the second most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 110 of their 1,061 babies (10%), the fifth 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 Nailah
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 Nailah and names like it
- Compare Nailah and NalaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNailah peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nailah since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Nailah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nailah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.