Nisha
Nisha was given to 13 girls in 2025, #8,214 among girls’ names; 2,994 Americans have been recorded with it since 1961 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,910 Americans named Nisha and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 35 years old and half are between 25 and 43.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nisha by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nisha mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nisha is “a female given name from Sanskrit used in India.” Its etymology gives the sense “night” (निशा).
Borrowed from Sanskrit निशा (niśā, “night”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nisha?
#8,214 among girls’ names, 2025
Nisha rose from #8,805 in 2015 to #8,214 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 7.3 to 8.1 per million.
104 babies in 1984, the peak
Nisha peaked in 1984, when 104 girls were given it, #1,244 among girls’ names. The 13 births of 2025 are 13% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 13 | #8,214 | 8.1 |
| 2024 | 20 | #6,094 | 12.3 |
| 2023 | 11 | #9,432 | 6.9 |
| 2022 | 22 | #5,756 | 13.4 |
| 2021 | 12 | #8,848 | 7.3 |
| 2020 | 15 | #7,471 | 9.3 |
| 2019 | 17 | #6,942 | 10.1 |
| 2018 | 14 | #8,038 | 8.2 |
| 2017 | 13 | #8,654 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 17 | #7,141 | 9.6 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #8,805 | 7.3 |
| 2014 | 26 | #5,269 | 14.6 |
| 2013 | 26 | #5,267 | 14.8 |
| 2012 | 27 | #5,211 | 15.3 |
| 2011 | 28 | #5,019 | 15.9 |
| 2010 | 35 | #4,277 | 19.7 |
| 2009 | 34 | #4,447 | 18.5 |
| 2008 | 42 | #3,835 | 22.2 |
| 2007 | 58 | #3,043 | 30.2 |
| 2006 | 40 | #3,838 | 21.0 |
| 2005 | 43 | #3,482 | 23.3 |
| 2004 | 47 | #3,247 | 25.6 |
| 2003 | 49 | #3,074 | 26.8 |
| 2002 | 68 | #2,366 | 37.8 |
| 2001 | 72 | #2,247 | 40.0 |
| 2000 | 67 | #2,323 | 36.9 |
| 1999 | 65 | #2,297 | 36.6 |
| 1998 | 80 | #1,912 | 45.3 |
| 1997 | 77 | #1,908 | 44.2 |
| 1996 | 79 | #1,854 | 45.1 |
| 1995 | 82 | #1,768 | 46.6 |
| 1994 | 80 | #1,801 | 44.8 |
| 1993 | 80 | #1,821 | 44.2 |
| 1992 | 97 | #1,591 | 52.6 |
| 1991 | 74 | #1,901 | 39.5 |
| 1990 | 89 | #1,660 | 46.9 |
| 1989 | 87 | #1,609 | 47.2 |
| 1988 | 88 | #1,526 | 49.4 |
| 1987 | 73 | #1,673 | 42.0 |
| 1986 | 83 | #1,502 | 48.4 |
| 1985 | 89 | #1,426 | 51.7 |
| 1984 | 104 | #1,244 | 61.8 |
| 1983 | 96 | #1,281 | 57.5 |
| 1982 | 82 | #1,467 | 48.4 |
| 1981 | 76 | #1,566 | 45.6 |
| 1980 | 68 | #1,687 | 41.0 |
| 1979 | 65 | #1,704 | 40.5 |
| 1978 | 60 | #1,743 | 39.2 |
| 1977 | 69 | #1,572 | 45.0 |
| 1976 | 59 | #1,670 | 40.3 |
| 1975 | 42 | #2,089 | 28.8 |
| 1974 | 46 | #1,901 | 31.3 |
| 1973 | 40 | #2,052 | 27.4 |
| 1972 | 27 | #2,649 | 17.7 |
| 1971 | 25 | #2,848 | 15.0 |
| 1970 | 24 | #2,910 | 13.7 |
| 1969 | 18 | #3,286 | 10.7 |
| 1968 | 13 | #3,938 | 7.9 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,565 | 3.6 |
| 1966 | 11 | #4,136 | 6.5 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,385 | 3.1 |
| 1961 | 5 | #7,246 | 2.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nisha a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nisha has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 62 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nisha: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nisha, and how old are they?
2,910 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 2,994 Americans ever recorded as Nisha. The median Nisha alive today is 35 years old; half are between 25 and 43.
The 2020 Census counted 6,498 people named Nisha (6,473 women and girls, 25 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,843 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.3 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 539 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,320 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 822 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 218 |
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 Nisha born?
The states with the most babies named Nisha are California, New York and New Jersey, with 71% of its births recorded by state since 1910; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 460 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| New York | 264 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| New Jersey | 223 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| Illinois | 145 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 144 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Florida | 28 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Ohio | 25 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 24 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Michigan | 10 | not ranked | 0.1× |
| Georgia | 7 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Nisha is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nisha is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1961 it was given 2.5 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 Nisha 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 8,953 babies since 1880, Nisha is the most given (33% of them). In 2025 it was given to 13 of their 28 babies (46%), again the 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 Nisha
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 Nisha and names like it
- Compare Nisha and NieshaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sNisha peaked in 1984.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nisha since 1910.
- Sanskrit namesWiktionary’s origin for Nisha: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1984The year the most babies were named Nisha.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Nisha alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with NMost given first.