Nashira
Arabic feminine name meaning "scattering star" or "falling star".
Name Census estimates that about 284 living Americans carry the first name Nashira. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nashira today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nashira births was 1983 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nashira. 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.
People living today
284
~ 1 in 1,206,881 Americans
Peak year
1983
17 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2023 SSA rank
#8,817
Tracked since 1976
Census
Nashira in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 257 people with the first name Nashira, which placed it at #32,623 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
#32,623
National first-name rank
People counted
257
257 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
54.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nashira
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nashira is Black at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.2%) and White (8.9%). 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 Nashira 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 Nashira at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American54.9% · 141
- Hispanic or Latino27.2% · 70
- White8.9% · 23
- Two or more races7.4% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2
Popularity
Nashira: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nashira from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 83 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Nashira remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nashira 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 Nashira during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nashiras live
Origin
Meaning and history of Nashira
The name Nashira is of Arabic origin, derived from the root word "nashr," which means "to spread" or "to propagate." It is believed to have emerged during the early Islamic era, around the 7th century AD, in the Arabian Peninsula.
Nashira was a relatively uncommon name in ancient times, but it can be found in some historical records and literary works from the Middle East. One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name is in a collection of Arabic poetry from the 8th century, where a woman named Nashira is praised for her beauty and wisdom.
During the Golden Age of Islamic civilization, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th centuries, the name Nashira gained some popularity among the scholarly and artistic circles of the time. One notable figure was Nashira al-Qayrawani, a renowned female poet and calligrapher who lived in the 10th century in present-day Tunisia.
In the 12th century, a famous Sufi mystic and scholar from Persia, known as Nashira al-Din al-Tusi, gained recognition for his contributions to astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. He was born in 1201 in the city of Tus, now located in modern-day Iran.
Another historical figure with the name Nashira was Nashira al-Andalusi, a physician and writer from the Iberian Peninsula during the 11th century. She was celebrated for her expertise in medicine and her literary works, which explored topics related to health and wellness.
In the realm of literature, the name Nashira appears in several classical Arabic novels and poems, often associated with characters who embodied the ideals of beauty, grace, and intelligence. One such example is the fictional character Nashira in the 14th-century epic "The Adventures of Sayf al-Muluk," a popular tale from the Arabian Nights collection.
While not as widespread as some other Arabic names, Nashira has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. It continues to be used today, carrying with it a rich cultural heritage and associations with literary and scholarly traditions.
People
Nashira + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nashira 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
Nashira: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nashira?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 284 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nashira 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 1,206,881 US residents.
Is Nashira a common name?
We classify Nashira as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 295 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nashira most popular?
The single biggest year for Nashira was 1983, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nashira is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nashira in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 257 people with the name Nashira, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,623 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 Nashira 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 Nashira?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nashira appears almost entirely female. Of the 265 people counted with this name, 99.2% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Nashira?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nashira is Black at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (27.2%) and White (8.9%). 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 Nashira most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nashira in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.9% (141 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 Nashira in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nashira a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nashira in the SSA data are female. 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 Nashira still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nashira 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 Nashira 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 have the name Nashira?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.