Nam
Nam was given to 8 boys in 2025, #9,442 among boys’ names; 1,404 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,350 Americans named Nam and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 19 and 41.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nam by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nam mean?
Wiktionary, Vietnamese section
Nam is “a unisex given name from Chinese”
Sino-Vietnamese word from 南.
[naːm˧˧]
Meaning: Wiktionary, Vietnamese section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nam?
#9,442 among boys’ names, 2025
Nam fell from #3,754 in 2015 to #9,442 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 15.1 to 4.7 per million.
58 babies in 1984, the peak
Nam peaked in 1984, when 58 boys were given it, #1,209 among boys’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 14% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #9,442 | 4.7 |
| 2024 | 9 | #8,765 | 5.2 |
| 2023 | 8 | #9,477 | 4.7 |
| 2022 | 5 | #13,731 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 12 | #6,972 | 6.9 |
| 2020 | 14 | #6,186 | 8.1 |
| 2019 | 18 | #5,284 | 10.0 |
| 2018 | 18 | #5,242 | 9.9 |
| 2017 | 26 | #4,057 | 14.0 |
| 2016 | 26 | #4,060 | 13.7 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29 | #3,754 | 15.1 |
| 2014 | 17 | #5,404 | 8.9 |
| 2013 | 22 | #4,415 | 11.6 |
| 2012 | 28 | #3,774 | 14.8 |
| 2011 | 27 | #3,860 | 14.2 |
| 2010 | 23 | #4,324 | 12.0 |
| 2009 | 28 | #3,792 | 14.1 |
| 2008 | 16 | #5,680 | 7.8 |
| 2007 | 37 | #3,115 | 17.8 |
| 2006 | 19 | #4,802 | 9.2 |
| 2005 | 26 | #3,686 | 13.0 |
| 2004 | 32 | #3,128 | 16.1 |
| 2003 | 21 | #4,065 | 10.6 |
| 2002 | 25 | #3,523 | 12.9 |
| 2001 | 22 | #3,803 | 11.3 |
| 2000 | 24 | #3,492 | 12.2 |
| 1999 | 23 | #3,450 | 12.0 |
| 1998 | 29 | #2,830 | 15.2 |
| 1997 | 22 | #3,315 | 11.7 |
| 1996 | 31 | #2,514 | 16.4 |
| 1995 | 35 | #2,277 | 18.4 |
| 1994 | 34 | #2,327 | 17.6 |
| 1993 | 45 | #1,858 | 22.9 |
| 1992 | 29 | #2,507 | 14.5 |
| 1991 | 41 | #1,903 | 20.3 |
| 1990 | 36 | #2,063 | 17.5 |
| 1989 | 43 | #1,781 | 21.5 |
| 1988 | 40 | #1,754 | 20.9 |
| 1987 | 38 | #1,746 | 20.4 |
| 1986 | 35 | #1,777 | 19.0 |
| 1985 | 46 | #1,469 | 24.9 |
| 1984 | 58 | #1,209 | 32.1 |
| 1983 | 56 | #1,231 | 31.2 |
| 1982 | 49 | #1,353 | 27.0 |
| 1981 | 53 | #1,265 | 29.6 |
| 1980 | 40 | #1,534 | 22.4 |
| 1979 | 20 | #2,441 | 11.6 |
| 1978 | 17 | #2,629 | 10.4 |
| 1977 | 13 | #3,145 | 7.9 |
| 1976 | 17 | #2,573 | 10.8 |
| 1975 | 14 | #2,859 | 9.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Nam a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nam has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 51 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nam: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nam, and how old are they?
1,350 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 1,404 Americans ever recorded as Nam. The median Nam alive today is 32 years old; half are between 19 and 41.
The 2020 Census counted 8,645 people named Nam (2,068 women and girls, 6,577 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,313 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6.6 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 111 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 634 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 395 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 210 |
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 Nam born?
The states with the most babies named Nam are California, Texas and Louisiana, with 97% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Louisiana is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 374 | not ranked | 2.0× |
| Texas | 133 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Louisiana | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Washington | 5 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Nam is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nam is most over-represented in California: since 1975 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 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 Nam 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 9,588 babies since 1880, Nam is the fourth most given (15% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 273 babies (2.9%), the sixth 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 Nam
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 Nam and names like it
- Compare Nam and NaimBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sNam peaked in 1984.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nam since 1910.
- Chinese namesWiktionary’s origin for Nam: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1984The year the most babies were named Nam.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Nam alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with NMost given first.