Humanverse

Noa vs Noahjames

American parents have registered 14,249 Noas since 1880, against 103 Noahjameses. Noa is still ahead, with 1,573 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Noa against Noahjames, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Noa Noahjames

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Noa has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1970 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2011, when Noa had 318 and Noahjames had 12.

Side by side

  Noa Noahjames
Total US births 14,249103
Most in one year 1,57312
Babies in 2025 1,5737
Estimated living today 14,000100
Median age today 57
Peak year 20252011
Best rank 226th girls6,578th boys
Rank in 2025 226th9,714th
First recorded 19702011
Girls / boys 11,815 / 2,4340 / 103

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Noahjameses alive today are over 7; half the Noas are over 5. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Noa and Noahjames.