Nehemiah
A masculine Hebrew name meaning "comforted by God" or "God comforts".
Name Census estimates that about 20,935 living Americans carry the first name Nehemiah. It sits at #426 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.2% of registrations). The average person named Nehemiah today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nehemiah births was 2010 (968 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nehemiah. 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 Nehemiah with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Nehemiah is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 610 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Nehemiah is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,372 Americans
Peak year
2010
968 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#426
Tracked since 1886
Census
Nehemiah in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,357 people with the first name Nehemiah, which placed it at #2,042 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
#2,042
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,357 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nehemiah
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nehemiah is Black at 51.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.6%) and White (15.5%). 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 Nehemiah 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 Nehemiah at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.2% · 6,836
- Hispanic or Latino20.6% · 2,753
- White15.5% · 2,068
- Two or more races8.7% · 1,162
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 360
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 178
Gender
Gender distribution for Nehemiah
Nehemiah leans heavily male at 97.2% of total registrations, but 610 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Nehemiah as a male name
- Ranked #426 in 2024
- 739 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (932 births)
Nehemiah as a female name
- Ranked #7,468 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nehemiah leans strongly male. 12,967 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 392 female bearers (2.9%).
Popularity
Nehemiah: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nehemiah from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nehemiah remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nehemiah 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 Nehemiah during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nehemiahs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 44 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Nehemiah, while Utah, Nebraska, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 418 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nehemiah
The name Nehemiah has its origins in ancient Hebrew and means "comforted by God" or "Yahweh comforts". It is a biblical name that first appeared in the Old Testament of the Bible, being the name of one of the most important figures in the Hebrew Bible.
Nehemiah was a Jewish leader who lived in the 5th century BCE and played a crucial role in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. His story is recounted in the Book of Nehemiah, one of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible. Nehemiah's unwavering faith and leadership inspired many and his name has been a popular choice among Jews and Christians for centuries.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nehemiah is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Jewish religious manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century BCE. This suggests that the name was in use among Jewish communities during that time period.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Nehemiah. One of the earliest was Nehemiah ben Hushiel (c. 1030-1100 CE), a Jewish scholar and grammarian who lived in Catalonia, Spain, and made significant contributions to the study of Hebrew grammar.
Another prominent figure was Nehemiah Hiyya ben Moses (c. 1650-1730 CE), a Jewish kabbalist and author from Hebron, Palestine, who wrote extensively on Jewish mysticism and the Kabbalah.
In more recent times, Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) was an English plant anatomist and philosopher who made important contributions to the study of plant anatomy and physiology.
Nehemiah Adams (1806-1878) was an American clergyman and writer who served as a pastor in various churches in Boston and published numerous books on religious topics.
Nehemiah Persoff (1919-2022) was an American character actor who appeared in numerous films and television shows, including some of the most iconic movies of the 20th century, such as "Some Like It Hot", "Anatomy of a Murder", and "Yentl".
People
Nehemiah + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nehemiah 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
Nehemiah: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nehemiah?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 20,935 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nehemiah 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 16,372 US residents.
Is Nehemiah a common name?
We classify Nehemiah as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 21,655 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nehemiah most popular?
The single biggest year for Nehemiah was 2010, when 968 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nehemiah is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nehemiah in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,357 people with the name Nehemiah, or 4.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,042 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 Nehemiah 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 Nehemiah?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nehemiah leans strongly male. 12,967 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 392 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Nehemiah?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nehemiah is Black at 51.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.6%) and White (15.5%). 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 Nehemiah most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Nehemiah in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.2% (6,836 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 Nehemiah in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nehemiah a male name?
Yes, 97.2% of people registered as Nehemiah 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 Nehemiah still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nehemiah 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 Nehemiah 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 Americans are named Nehemiah?
You can see how many people have the name Nehemiah on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.