Naphtali
Naphtali was given to 6 boys in 2025, #11,584 among boys’ names; 354 Americans have been recorded with it since 1975 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Naphtali by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Naphtali mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Naphtali is “a male given name from Hebrew.”
From Biblical Hebrew נַפְתָּלִי (naftalí), a son of Jacob. Compare Arabic نافس (“to compete with”).
/ˈnæf.təˌlaɪ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Naphtali?
#11,584 among boys’ names, 2025
Naphtali fell from #10,284 in 2015 to #11,584 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 3.7 to 3.5 per million.
19 babies in 2018, the peak
Naphtali peaked in 2018, when 19 babies were given it (14 boys, #6,230 among boys’ names). The 6 births of 2025 are 32% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | under 5 | 6 | #11,584 | |
| 2024 | under 5 | 6 | #11,910 | |
| 2023 | under 5 | 15 | #6,127 | |
| 2022 | under 5 | 9 | #8,776 | |
| 2021 | 5 | #16,949 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | under 5 | 7 | #10,262 | |
| 2019 | under 5 | 6 | #11,713 | |
| 2018 | 5 | #17,424 | 14 | #6,230 |
| 2017 | 5 | #17,671 | 9 | #8,621 |
| 2016 | under 5 | 6 | #11,703 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | under 5 | 7 | #10,284 | |
| 2014 | under 5 | 6 | #11,692 | |
| 2013 | under 5 | 6 | #11,726 | |
| 2012 | under 5 | 7 | #10,424 | |
| 2011 | 5 | #18,740 | 8 | #9,343 |
| 2010 | under 5 | 7 | #10,408 | |
| 2009 | 7 | #14,771 | 10 | #8,112 |
| 2008 | 7 | #14,932 | 9 | #8,787 |
| 2007 | 5 | #19,647 | 9 | #8,694 |
| 2006 | 6 | #16,529 | 6 | #11,603 |
| 2004 | under 5 | 9 | #7,974 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 8 | #8,376 | |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,317 | 7 | #9,090 |
| 2001 | under 5 | 6 | #10,136 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 5 | #11,063 | |
| 1998 | under 5 | 9 | #6,666 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 5 | #10,298 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 7 | #7,702 | |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,909 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 8 | #6,498 | |
| 1991 | under 5 | 8 | #6,337 | |
| 1990 | under 5 | 7 | #6,926 | |
| 1987 | under 5 | 7 | #5,892 | |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,443 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 7 | #8,818 | 5 | #7,006 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,968 | 8 | #4,866 |
| 1981 | 6 | #9,955 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 6 | #6,009 | |
| 1979 | under 5 | 8 | #4,705 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 5 | #6,030 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Naphtali a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 354 Americans recorded as Naphtali, 23% are girls and 77% boys. In 2025 it went to 6 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Naphtali: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Naphtali, and how old are they?
An estimated 346 Americans named Naphtali and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 10 and 32. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 359 people named Naphtali (126 women and girls, 233 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 302 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above 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.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 2,378 babies since 1880, Naphtali is the second most given (15% of them). In 2025 it was given to 6 of their 64 babies (9.4%), again the second 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 Naphtali
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 Naphtali and names like it
- Compare Naphtali and NaftaliBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNaphtali peaked in 2018.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Naphtali since 1910.
- Hebrew namesWiktionary’s origin for Naphtali: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Naphtali.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Naphtali alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.