Niobe
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "woman with a beautiful figure".
Name Census estimates that about 188 living Americans carry the first name Niobe. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Niobe today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Niobe births was 2004 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Niobe. 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 Niobe with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
188
~ 1 in 1,823,161 Americans
Peak year
2004
33 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,083
Tracked since 2003
Census
Niobe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 230 people with the first name Niobe, which placed it at #35,134 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
#35,134
National first-name rank
People counted
230
230 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
47.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Niobe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niobe is Hispanic at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and White (16.1%). 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 Niobe 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 Niobe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino47.0% · 108
- Black or African American24.3% · 56
- White16.1% · 37
- Two or more races9.6% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 3
Popularity
Niobe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Niobe from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 123 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Niobe 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 Niobe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Niobes live
Origin
Meaning and history of Niobe
The name Niobe originates from Greek mythology and is derived from the ancient Greek word 'niobê' which means 'tear' or 'the mourner'. It is believed to have emerged during the classical antiquity period, around the 8th century BC.
In Greek mythology, Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and the queen of Thebes. She was known for her pride and boastfulness about her fourteen children, which led to a tragic encounter with the gods Apollo and Artemis. As punishment for her arrogance, they killed all of Niobe's children, leaving her in a state of perpetual mourning and grief, symbolized by her transformation into a weeping rock formation on Mount Sipylus.
The earliest recorded use of the name Niobe can be found in the works of ancient Greek poets and playwrights, such as Homer's Iliad and Aeschylus' tragedy 'Niobe'. The character of Niobe also appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a famous collection of mythological tales from ancient Rome.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Niobe. One of the earliest was Niobe of Bithynia, a Greek princess who lived in the 3rd century BC and married the Seleucid king Antiochus III the Great. Another was Niobe, a 4th-century Christian martyr from Paltus, Pamphylia, who was executed for her faith during the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire.
In the 16th century, Niobe Simons (1552-1628) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver known for her still-life paintings. During the same period, Niobe Regina Marchionne (1551-1619) was an Italian noblewoman and the wife of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
More recently, Niobe Ayme (1924-1988) was a French writer and journalist, best known for her autobiographical novel 'La Vie Revee' (The Dreamed Life). Niobe Bryant (born 1949) is an American novelist and poet, known for her works exploring themes of race, gender, and identity.
These are just a few examples of individuals throughout history who have carried the name Niobe, a name steeped in Greek mythology and symbolizing the depths of human grief and mourning.
People
Niobe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Niobe 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
Niobe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Niobe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 188 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Niobe 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 1,823,161 US residents.
Is Niobe a common name?
We classify Niobe as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 190 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Niobe most popular?
The single biggest year for Niobe was 2004, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Niobe is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Niobe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 230 people with the name Niobe, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #35,134 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 Niobe 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 Niobe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Niobe leans strongly female. 226 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 6 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Niobe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Niobe is Hispanic at 47.0%. The next largest groups are Black (24.3%) and White (16.1%). 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 Niobe most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Niobe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.0% (108 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 Niobe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Niobe a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Niobe 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 Niobe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Niobe 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 Niobe 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 common is the name Niobe?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Niobe at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.