Nijah
Nijah was last recorded in 2024, when 10 babies were given it; 1,403 Americans have been recorded with it between 1977 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,380 Americans named Nijah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 24 years old and half are between 18 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nijah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nijah?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,047, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
81 babies in 1998, the peak
Nijah peaked in 1998, when 81 babies were given it (75 girls, #2,002 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 10 | #10,047 | under 5 | |
| 2023 | 5 | #16,931 | 5 | #13,583 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,931 | 6 | #11,876 |
| 2021 | 13 | #8,338 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 5 | #16,844 | under 5 | |
| 2019 | 8 | #12,124 | 5 | #13,549 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,185 | under 5 | |
| 2017 | 14 | #8,166 | 10 | #7,971 |
| 2016 | 11 | #9,910 | 10 | #7,979 |
| 2015 | 15 | #7,887 | 6 | #11,683 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 10 | #10,727 | 13 | #6,522 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,063 | 8 | #9,404 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,551 | 11 | #7,392 |
| 2011 | 27 | #5,160 | under 5 | |
| 2010 | 33 | #4,471 | 5 | #13,686 |
| 2009 | 55 | #3,117 | 11 | #7,555 |
| 2008 | 35 | #4,426 | 8 | #9,597 |
| 2007 | 30 | #4,909 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 30 | #4,766 | 6 | #11,632 |
| 2005 | 54 | #2,990 | 8 | #8,862 |
| 2004 | 65 | #2,576 | 7 | #9,649 |
| 2003 | 75 | #2,272 | 6 | #10,489 |
| 2002 | 53 | #2,841 | 9 | #7,453 |
| 2001 | 63 | #2,475 | 8 | #8,086 |
| 2000 | 71 | #2,227 | 8 | #7,962 |
| 1999 | 62 | #2,391 | 10 | #6,362 |
| 1998 | 75 | #2,002 | 6 | #9,288 |
| 1997 | 43 | #2,857 | 6 | #8,939 |
| 1996 | 51 | #2,496 | 7 | #7,713 |
| 1995 | 39 | #3,000 | 5 | #9,862 |
| 1994 | 39 | #3,017 | under 5 | |
| 1993 | 29 | #3,741 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 20 | #4,981 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 18 | #5,324 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 19 | #4,997 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 20 | #4,614 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,805 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 8 | #8,498 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 5 | #12,219 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,982 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 9 | #7,224 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 11 | #6,088 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 7 | #8,894 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 8 | #7,899 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,892 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,696 | under 5 |
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 Nijah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,403 Americans recorded as Nijah, 87% are girls and 13% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Nijah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nijah, and how old are they?
1,380 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,403 Americans ever recorded as Nijah. The median Nijah alive today is 24 years old; half are between 18 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 1,121 people named Nijah (948 women and girls, 173 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,337 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 | 13 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 308 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 881 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 180 |
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 3,279 babies since 1880, Nijah is the most given (43% of them).
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 Nijah
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 Nijah and names like it
- Compare Nijah and NijaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sNijah peaked in 1998.
- Pennsylvania’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nijah since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Nijah.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nijah alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.