Nadir
An Arabic name meaning "the lowest point" or "the deepest point".
Name Census estimates that about 1,244 living Americans carry the first name Nadir. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nadir today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nadir births was 2001 (46 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nadir. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nadir with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 275,526 Americans
Peak year
2001
46 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,814
Tracked since 1975
Census
Nadir in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,747 people with the first name Nadir, which placed it at #8,331 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,331
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,747 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
35.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nadir
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nadir is Black at 35.4%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nadir described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nadir at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American35.4% · 619
- White28.6% · 500
- Asian and Pacific Islander20.9% · 365
- Hispanic or Latino10.1% · 176
- Two or more races4.9% · 85
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Nadir: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nadir from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 372 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Nadir remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nadir by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nadir during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nadirs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York recorded the most babies named Nadir, while California, New York, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 89 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nadir
The name Nadir originates from the Arabic language and has its roots in the Arabic word "nadir" which means "rare" or "precious." The name is believed to have been in use since the early medieval period in the Arab world.
In Islamic tradition, Nadir is mentioned as the name of one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. According to historical records, Nadir ibn al-Harith was a prominent figure among the companions and participated in several significant battles during the early days of Islam.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nadir can be found in the 9th century work "Kitab al-Aghani" (The Book of Songs), which mentions a famous Arab poet and musician named Nadir ibn al-Mundhir al-Khuza'i who lived during the Abbasid Caliphate.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nadir. One of the most famous is Nadir Shah, who ruled the Persian Empire from 1736 to 1747. He was known for his military conquests and briefly extended the Persian Empire's control over large parts of the Middle East and South Asia.
Another prominent figure with the name Nadir was Nadir Afonso, a 16th-century Portuguese explorer and navigator. He played a significant role in Portuguese maritime explorations, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.
In the field of literature, Nadir Ali Wazir was a prominent 20th-century Pakistani poet and writer. He wrote extensively in both Urdu and Punjabi languages and is considered one of the pioneers of modern Punjabi poetry.
Nadir Gopal Banerjee, born in 1882, was an Indian mathematician and statistician. He made significant contributions to the field of statistics and is credited with developing several statistical methods and techniques.
Lastly, Nadir Afonso, born in 1920, was a renowned Mozambican artist and sculptor. He is celebrated for his sculptures and artworks that depicted the struggles and cultural heritage of the African people.
People
Nadir + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nadir as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nadir: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nadir?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,244 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nadir going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 275,526 US residents.
Is Nadir a common name?
We classify Nadir as "Rare". It ranks above 91.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,268 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nadir most popular?
The single biggest year for Nadir was 2001, when 46 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nadir is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nadir in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,747 people with the name Nadir, or 0.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,331 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nadir in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nadir?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nadir leans strongly male. 1,612 people counted with this name were male (92.1%), compared with 138 female bearers (7.9%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nadir?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nadir is Black at 35.4%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (20.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nadir most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nadir in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.4% (619 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nadir in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nadir a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nadir in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nadir still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nadir in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nadir can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Nadir?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.