Nilah
Nilah was given to 40 girls in 2025, #3,756 among girls’ names; 1,420 Americans have been recorded with it since 1916 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,300 Americans named Nilah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (92% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 8 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nilah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Nilah?
#3,756 among girls’ names, 2025
Nilah fell from #2,546 in 2015 to #3,756 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 39.8 to 24.9 per million.
84 babies in 2012, the peak
Nilah peaked in 2012, when 84 girls were given it, #2,259 among girls’ names. The 40 births of 2025 are 48% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 40 | #3,756 | 24.9 |
| 2024 | 30 | #4,634 | 18.5 |
| 2023 | 48 | #3,367 | 29.9 |
| 2022 | 31 | #4,548 | 18.9 |
| 2021 | 46 | #3,425 | 28.0 |
| 2020 | 62 | #2,705 | 38.4 |
| 2019 | 62 | #2,746 | 36.9 |
| 2018 | 60 | #2,832 | 35.3 |
| 2017 | 62 | #2,769 | 35.9 |
| 2016 | 70 | #2,557 | 39.5 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 71 | #2,546 | 39.8 |
| 2014 | 79 | #2,343 | 44.2 |
| 2013 | 75 | #2,428 | 42.7 |
| 2012 | 84 | #2,259 | 47.7 |
| 2011 | 81 | #2,318 | 46.0 |
| 2010 | 66 | #2,717 | 37.1 |
| 2009 | 58 | #2,989 | 31.6 |
| 2008 | 53 | #3,205 | 28.0 |
| 2007 | 41 | #3,901 | 21.3 |
| 2006 | 32 | #4,548 | 16.8 |
| 2005 | 34 | #4,172 | 18.4 |
| 2004 | 18 | #6,684 | 9.8 |
| 2003 | 20 | #5,977 | 10.9 |
| 2002 | 20 | #5,837 | 11.1 |
| 2001 | 13 | #8,060 | 7.2 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,458 | 7.7 |
| 1999 | 7 | #12,293 | 3.9 |
| 1998 | 8 | #10,844 | 4.5 |
| 1997 | 5 | #15,423 | 2.9 |
| 1996 | 5 | #15,161 | 2.9 |
| 1944 | 7 | #3,967 | 5.3 |
| 1939 | 5 | #4,756 | 4.6 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,811 | 4.5 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,707 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 6 | #4,027 | 5.8 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,713 | 4.8 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,784 | 4.8 |
| 1933 | 11 | #2,644 | 10.9 |
| 1929 | 7 | #3,946 | 6.3 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,571 | 5.2 |
| 1927 | 7 | #4,166 | 5.9 |
| 1926 | 5 | #5,410 | 4.2 |
| 1925 | 5 | #5,561 | 4.1 |
| 1924 | 7 | #4,327 | 5.6 |
| 1922 | 6 | #4,864 | 5.0 |
| 1921 | 7 | #4,332 | 5.7 |
| 1920 | 5 | #5,555 | 4.2 |
| 1919 | 6 | #4,650 | 5.3 |
| 1918 | 7 | #4,169 | 6.0 |
| 1916 | 6 | #4,272 | 5.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nilah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nilah has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 50 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nilah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nilah, and how old are they?
1,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 92% of the 1,420 Americans ever recorded as Nilah. The median Nilah alive today is 12 years old; half are between 8 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 992 people named Nilah (989 women and girls, 3 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,078 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 16 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 549 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 731 |
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).
How common is the spelling Nilah?
Nilah is a less common spelling of Nyla: SSA has recorded 1,420 Nilah and 27,714 Nyla since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 51,909 babies since 1880, Nilah is the fourth most given (2.7% of them). In 2025 it was given to 40 of their 2,133 babies (1.9%), again the fourth 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 Nilah
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 Nilah and names like it
- Compare Nilah and NylaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sNilah peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nilah since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Nilah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Nilah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.