Noa
Noa is given to both girls and boys: 1,348 girls and 225 boys were given it in 2025 (#226 among girls’ names and #1,006 among boys’, #434 among all names counting both); 14,249 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 14,100 Americans named Noa and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Noa by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Noa mean?
Wiktionary, Hawaiian section
Noa is “a male given name originating from the Bible or from noa (“commoner, free man”)”
/ˈno.a/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Hawaiian section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Noa?
#226 among girls’ names, 2025
Noa rose from #767 in 2015 to #226 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.21 to 0.84 per 1,000.
1,573 babies in 2025, the peak
Noa peaked in 2025, when 1,573 babies were given it (1,348 girls, #226 among girls’ names). In 2024 it went to 1,266 girls.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,348 | #226 | 225 | #1,006 |
| 2024 | 1,266 | #253 | 230 | #981 |
| 2023 | 1,046 | #298 | 151 | #1,279 |
| 2022 | 1,071 | #298 | 141 | #1,337 |
| 2021 | 1,001 | #329 | 98 | #1,683 |
| 2020 | 664 | #465 | 61 | #2,254 |
| 2019 | 539 | #566 | 80 | #1,882 |
| 2018 | 450 | #656 | 65 | #2,160 |
| 2017 | 392 | #727 | 52 | #2,475 |
| 2016 | 392 | #725 | 69 | #2,061 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 370 | #767 | 63 | #2,185 |
| 2014 | 289 | #937 | 63 | #2,170 |
| 2013 | 248 | #1,007 | 70 | #1,984 |
| 2012 | 241 | #1,049 | 68 | #2,040 |
| 2011 | 235 | #1,052 | 83 | #1,765 |
| 2010 | 222 | #1,113 | 60 | #2,201 |
| 2009 | 223 | #1,138 | 75 | #1,920 |
| 2008 | 199 | #1,262 | 91 | #1,687 |
| 2007 | 196 | #1,261 | 77 | #1,872 |
| 2006 | 190 | #1,266 | 85 | #1,678 |
| 2005 | 142 | #1,487 | 60 | #2,070 |
| 2004 | 116 | #1,678 | 62 | #1,966 |
| 2003 | 144 | #1,386 | 46 | #2,336 |
| 2002 | 118 | #1,581 | 54 | #2,034 |
| 2001 | 101 | #1,772 | 51 | #2,075 |
| 2000 | 114 | #1,567 | 72 | #1,631 |
| 1999 | 90 | #1,779 | 39 | #2,327 |
| 1998 | 76 | #1,984 | 30 | #2,760 |
| 1997 | 71 | #2,014 | 18 | #3,836 |
| 1996 | 82 | #1,801 | 15 | #4,325 |
| 1995 | 27 | #3,944 | 13 | #4,708 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,222 | 8 | #6,796 |
| 1993 | 12 | #7,343 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | 17 | #5,646 | under 5 | |
| 1991 | 7 | #11,113 | 8 | #6,349 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,365 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,509 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,173 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 12 | #6,210 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,257 | 6 | #6,488 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,985 | 5 | #7,276 |
| 1984 | 9 | #7,228 | under 5 | |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,698 | 7 | #5,313 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,738 | 10 | #4,144 |
| 1981 | under 5 | 7 | #5,322 | |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,968 | 6 | #6,020 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 5 | #6,751 | |
| 1978 | 5 | #10,908 | 5 | #6,486 |
| 1977 | 5 | #10,742 | under 5 | |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,836 | 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 Noa a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 14,249 Americans recorded as Noa, 83% are girls and 17% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Noa: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Noa, and how old are they?
14,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 14,249 Americans ever recorded as Noa. The median Noa alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 7,752 people named Noa (5,668 women and girls, 2,084 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,070 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 | 36 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 308 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,410 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,400 |
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 Noa born?
The states with the most babies named Noa are California, New York and Texas, with 33% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 236 | #154 | 1.3× |
| New York | 132 | #142 | 2.0× |
| Texas | 121 | #360 | 0.6× |
| Florida | 119 | #187 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 61 | #213 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 53 | #177 | 1.1× |
| Washington | 51 | #174 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 47 | #264 | 0.6× |
| Virginia | 44 | #218 | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 42 | #255 | 0.9× |
Where Noa is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Noa is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1970 it was given 6.0 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 Noa 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 33,246 babies since 1880, Noa is the second most given (43% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,573 of their 1,643 babies (96%), the 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 Noa
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 Noa and names like it
- Compare Noa and NonaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNoa peaked in 2025.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Noa since 1910.
- The top names of 2025The year the most babies were named Noa.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Noa alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.