Noah
- Pronunciation
- [Noah]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Comfort
- Origin
- Hebrew
About the Name Noah
Noah descends from the Hebrew Noach, traditionally derived from nuach meaning "rest" or "comfort." The biblical Noah is one of the most consequential figures of the Hebrew Bible: the righteous patriarch who, according to Genesis, built the Ark to save his family and pairs of every animal species from the Great Flood that destroyed all other life on Earth. Noah's narrative — the construction of the Ark, the 40 days of rain, the dove-and-olive-branch sign, the covenant rainbow — is one of the foundational origin-and-redemption stories of Western religious tradition.
The name carries layered religious weight across Abrahamic traditions: Noah (Nuh in Arabic) is recognized as a major prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Genesis covenant — God's promise never again to destroy life by flood, sealed by the rainbow — became a foundational theological statement of divine mercy. Noah was rare in pre-modern English-language naming despite the biblical anchor, becoming common only through 17th-century Puritan Old Testament revival.
The contemporary American Noah surge is one of the most striking modern naming-trend events: the name climbed from outside the US top 100 in 1980 to the US #1 boys' rank from 2013 through 2016 — making Noah one of only a handful of names to hold the US #1 position multiple times in the modern era. Notable bearers include American actor Noah Wyle (the long-running ER series), American filmmaker Noah Baumbach (Oscar-nominated for Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale), and the fictional Noah Calhoun of Nicholas Sparks's The Notebook. The name's appeal is its compact biblical depth — two short syllables, religiously anchored across Abrahamic traditions, and tonal warmth distinctive to Hebrew-derived names. Common nicknames are scarce since the name is already short — No, Noey, and the rare Noi each occasionally appear. International forms include Noé (French/Spanish, with accent), Noè (Italian, with grave accent), Nuh (Arabic), and the original Hebrew Noach.
By Marvin Tang. Popularity figures use an imported selection of SSA records; SSA does not supply name meanings or etymologies. Editorial references, where available, are listed with the name explanation. Sources and coverage.
Quick Facts About Noah
US Popularity History (1995–2025)
Annual imported US counts for Noah by recorded sex, from US Social Security Administration records. Highest count in the imported records: 2025 with 20,358 boys named Noah (boy rank #2 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Coverage: imported US Social Security card-application records, not a complete birth census. Historical coverage is narrower, including top-100 selection before 2000; recent imports also use catalog and rank filters. Missing rows can reflect those filters or source privacy limits and must not be read as zero or fewer than five uses. Spellings and recorded sex are kept separate.
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Look up Noah across states
Compare this exact spelling in one year and recorded sex list. Missing state records remain unknown.
Observed State Ranks for Noah
Average boy-name rank across the same 2016–2025 window, limited to 51 jurisdictions with every year imported. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings. This is an ordinal comparison, not a per-capita rate. States with missing years are excluded. For Noah the lowest observed averages are in Illinois, California, Connecticut.
Lowest observed average rank
| # | State | Avg rank | Imported count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | #1 | 7,147 |
| 2 | California | #1 | 26,188 |
| 3 | Connecticut | #1 | 2,399 |
| 4 | Michigan | #1 | 4,893 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #1 | 7,032 |
| 6 | Hawaii | #2 | 620 |
| 7 | Rhode Island | #2 | 671 |
| 8 | Delaware | #2 | 573 |
| 9 | New Mexico | #2 | 1,121 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #2 | 6,320 |
Highest observed average rank
| # | State | Avg rank | Imported count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wyoming | #17 | 181 |
| 2 | Vermont | #11 | 211 |
| 3 | Montana | #11 | 389 |
| 4 | Idaho | #11 | 730 |
| 5 | South Dakota | #10 | 395 |
| 6 | New Hampshire | #10 | 587 |
| 7 | Maine | #10 | 478 |
| 8 | Utah | #10 | 1,733 |
| 9 | North Dakota | #9 | 411 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #8 | 2,349 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. Only states with all 10 annual observations for this spelling and recorded sex are compared. Missing states are excluded, not assigned zero. Average rank measures position in state rankings, not a per-capita rate. Local import filters and SSA privacy limits can both create gaps. Coverage and limitations.
Related Forms in This Catalog
Open each form for its own meaning, language history, and exact-spelling usage records.
Famous People Named Noah
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Noah.
- Noah Webster — Novelist (1758)
Looking for names like Noah?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Noah to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Noah against names with the largest imported counts for boys-name peers (top 8 with every year imported, 2016–2025). Names with missing annual observations are excluded from this comparison.
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