Niamh
Niamh was given to 43 girls in 2025, #3,560 among girls’ names; 1,617 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,600 Americans named Niamh and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 11 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Niamh by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Niamh mean?
Wiktionary, Irish section
Niamh is “a female given name” Its etymology gives the senses “brightness, lustre, sheen” (niamh) and “brilliance, beauty” (níam) and “lustre” (ném).
From the noun niamh (“brightness, lustre, sheen”), from Middle Irish níam (“brilliance, beauty”), itself from Old Irish ném (“lustre”).
/nʲiəvˠ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Irish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Niamh?
#3,560 among girls’ names, 2025
Niamh rose from #4,205 in 2015 to #3,560 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 19.6 to 26.8 per million.
74 babies in 2008, the peak
Niamh peaked in 2008, when 74 girls were given it, #2,552 among girls’ names. The 43 births of 2025 are 58% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 43 | #3,560 | 26.8 |
| 2024 | 51 | #3,160 | 31.5 |
| 2023 | 33 | #4,340 | 20.6 |
| 2022 | 37 | #4,017 | 22.6 |
| 2021 | 35 | #4,146 | 21.3 |
| 2020 | 33 | #4,239 | 20.4 |
| 2019 | 44 | #3,536 | 26.2 |
| 2018 | 40 | #3,776 | 23.5 |
| 2017 | 37 | #4,050 | 21.4 |
| 2016 | 45 | #3,506 | 25.4 |
Every recorded year (40)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 35 | #4,205 | 19.6 |
| 2014 | 53 | #3,129 | 29.7 |
| 2013 | 44 | #3,556 | 25.1 |
| 2012 | 46 | #3,510 | 26.1 |
| 2011 | 60 | #2,893 | 34.1 |
| 2010 | 43 | #3,679 | 24.2 |
| 2009 | 56 | #3,079 | 30.5 |
| 2008 | 74 | #2,552 | 39.1 |
| 2007 | 58 | #3,042 | 30.2 |
| 2006 | 69 | #2,623 | 36.3 |
| 2005 | 57 | #2,890 | 30.8 |
| 2004 | 69 | #2,468 | 37.6 |
| 2003 | 67 | #2,456 | 36.7 |
| 2002 | 57 | #2,696 | 31.7 |
| 2001 | 69 | #2,316 | 38.3 |
| 2000 | 60 | #2,527 | 33.0 |
| 1999 | 47 | #2,885 | 26.5 |
| 1998 | 47 | #2,830 | 26.6 |
| 1997 | 44 | #2,805 | 25.3 |
| 1996 | 24 | #4,414 | 13.7 |
| 1995 | 37 | #3,137 | 21.0 |
| 1994 | 22 | #4,643 | 12.3 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,164 | 8.3 |
| 1992 | 13 | #6,929 | 7.1 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,120 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 9 | #8,999 | 4.7 |
| 1989 | 14 | #6,044 | 7.6 |
| 1984 | 8 | #7,917 | 4.8 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,896 | 4.8 |
| 1969 | 5 | #8,290 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Niamh a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Niamh has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 40 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Niamh: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Niamh, and how old are they?
1,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,617 Americans ever recorded as Niamh. The median Niamh alive today is 18 years old; half are between 11 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 1,666 people named Niamh (1,648 women and girls, 18 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,381 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 12 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 148 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 913 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 527 |
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 Niamh born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 6 | #2,006 | 2.8× |
Where Niamh is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Niamh is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1969 it was given 5.9 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 Niamh with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Niamh
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 Niamh and names like it
- Compare Niamh and DelaneyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNiamh peaked in 2008.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Niamh since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Niamh: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Niamh.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Niamh alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.