Nehemias
Nehemias is a masculine name of Hebrew origin meaning "comfort of the Lord".
Name Census estimates that about 1,760 living Americans carry the first name Nehemias. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Nehemias today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nehemias births was 2024 (103 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nehemias. 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.
Key insights
- • Nehemias is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 194,747 Americans
Peak year
2024
103 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,645
Tracked since 1968
Census
Nehemias in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,653 people with the first name Nehemias, which placed it at #8,702 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
#8,702
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,653 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
95.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nehemias
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nehemias is Hispanic at 95.6%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.2%). 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 Nehemias 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 Nehemias at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino95.6% · 1,581
- White1.9% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 20
- Black or African American0.8% · 14
- Two or more races0.2% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Nehemias: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nehemias from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 781 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Nehemias remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nehemias 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 Nehemias during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nehemias' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Nehemias, while Washington, Virginia, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nehemias
The name Nehemias is derived from the Hebrew name Nehemiah, which means "comforted by God" or "the Lord comforts." It has its roots in ancient Judaic culture and is first mentioned in the biblical Book of Nehemiah, written around the 5th century BCE.
Nehemiah was a Jewish leader and cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes I. He played a crucial role in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. The Book of Nehemiah recounts his efforts and leadership in this endeavor, making him a prominent figure in Jewish history.
The name Nehemias is a variant spelling found in some translations of the Bible, particularly in the Latin Vulgate version. It was also used in various European languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nehemias can be found in the writings of the 4th-century Christian scholar Jerome, who used this spelling in his Latin translation of the Bible.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nehemias or its variants. One such individual was Nehemias Grew (1641-1712), an English botanist and microscopist who made significant contributions to the study of plant anatomy and physiology.
Another prominent figure was Nehemias Trevitt (c. 1660-1698), an English navigator and explorer who sailed with William Dampier and was involved in the first English trading expedition to the western coast of Australia.
In the realm of literature, Nehemias Hiëronimus Longinus (1663-1744) was a Dutch philologist and scholar who wrote extensively on classical Greek and Latin texts.
The name Nehemias also appears in religious history, such as Nehemias de Sépulveda (c. 1490-1540), a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary in Mexico and wrote about the indigenous cultures of the region.
Lastly, Nehemias Trübner (1818-1884) was a German-born British bookseller and publisher who played a significant role in the dissemination of literature and scholarly works in the 19th century.
People
Nehemias + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nehemias 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
Nehemias: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nehemias?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,760 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nehemias 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 194,747 US residents.
Is Nehemias a common name?
We classify Nehemias as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,780 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nehemias most popular?
The single biggest year for Nehemias was 2024, when 103 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nehemias is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nehemias in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,653 people with the name Nehemias, or 0.55 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,702 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 Nehemias 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 Nehemias?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nehemias appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,642 people counted with this name, 99.4% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Nehemias?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nehemias is Hispanic at 95.6%. The next largest groups are White (1.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.2%). 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 Nehemias most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Nehemias in the 2020 Census, accounting for 95.6% (1,581 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 Nehemias in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nehemias a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nehemias 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 Nehemias still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nehemias 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 Nehemias 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 called Nehemias?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.