Nihal
Nihal is given to both girls and boys: 12 girls and 42 boys were given it in 2025 (#8,719 among girls’ names and #2,970 among boys’, #5,396 among all names counting both); 1,063 Americans have been recorded with it since 1993 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,050 Americans named Nihal and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nihal by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nihal mean?
Wiktionary, Turkish section
Nihal is “a female given name from Persian” Its etymology gives the sense “a sapling, offshoot” (نهال).
Inherited from Ottoman Turkish نهال (nihāl, “a sapling, offshoot”), from Persian نهال (nehâl, nahâl).
/niˈhal/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Turkish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nihal?
#2,970 among boys’ names, 2025
Nihal fell from #2,899 in 2015 to #2,970 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 21.4 to 24.6 per million.
61 babies in 2016, the peak
Nihal peaked in 2016, when 61 babies were given it (38 boys, #3,102 among boys’ names). The 54 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 89% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12 | #8,719 | 42 | #2,970 |
| 2024 | 15 | #7,497 | 41 | #3,032 |
| 2023 | 7 | #13,080 | 32 | #3,603 |
| 2022 | 12 | #8,901 | 25 | #4,254 |
| 2021 | 14 | #7,909 | 39 | #3,106 |
| 2020 | 11 | #9,371 | 22 | #4,503 |
| 2019 | 10 | #10,267 | 34 | #3,404 |
| 2018 | 12 | #9,005 | 30 | #3,674 |
| 2017 | 17 | #7,016 | 37 | #3,174 |
| 2016 | 23 | #5,745 | 38 | #3,102 |
Every recorded year (32)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #9,962 | 41 | #2,899 |
| 2014 | 13 | #8,827 | 41 | #2,873 |
| 2013 | 18 | #6,941 | 35 | #3,166 |
| 2012 | 9 | #11,967 | 30 | #3,601 |
| 2011 | 14 | #8,511 | 30 | #3,575 |
| 2010 | 6 | #16,404 | 27 | #3,869 |
| 2009 | 8 | #13,354 | 28 | #3,795 |
| 2008 | 6 | #16,901 | 25 | #4,105 |
| 2007 | 9 | #12,381 | 25 | #4,083 |
| 2006 | under 5 | 18 | #4,997 | |
| 2005 | under 5 | 34 | #3,065 | |
| 2004 | under 5 | 31 | #3,195 | |
| 2003 | under 5 | 18 | #4,563 | |
| 2002 | under 5 | 13 | #5,627 | |
| 2001 | 5 | #17,205 | 24 | #3,584 |
| 2000 | under 5 | 19 | #4,161 | |
| 1999 | under 5 | 12 | #5,561 | |
| 1998 | 6 | #13,634 | 6 | #9,287 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 6 | #8,937 | |
| 1996 | under 5 | 6 | #8,677 | |
| 1995 | under 5 | 9 | #6,254 | |
| 1993 | under 5 | 7 | #7,380 |
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 Nihal a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,063 Americans recorded as Nihal, 22% are girls and 78% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Nihal: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nihal, and how old are they?
1,050 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,063 Americans ever recorded as Nihal. The median Nihal alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 1,409 people named Nihal (463 women and girls, 946 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 793 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 21 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 403 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 628 |
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 Nihal born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 21 | #1,030 | 1.4× |
| Minnesota | 6 | not ranked | 0.9× |
Where Nihal is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nihal is most over-represented in California: since 1993 it was given 1.4 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 Nihal 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 5,036 babies since 1880, Nihal is the third most given (21% of them). In 2025 it was given to 54 of their 180 babies (30%), the second 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 Nihal
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 Nihal and names like it
- Compare Nihal and NiallBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNihal peaked in 2016.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nihal since 1910.
- Persian namesWiktionary’s origin for Nihal: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2016The year the most babies were named Nihal.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nihal alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.