Noya
A feminine Japanese given name meaning "thick and full".
Name Census estimates that about 317 living Americans carry the first name Noya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Noya today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Noya births was 2024 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Noya. 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 Noya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
317
~ 1 in 1,081,244 Americans
Peak year
2024
26 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,093
Tracked since 2003
Census
Noya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 263 people with the first name Noya, which placed it at #32,158 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
#32,158
National first-name rank
People counted
263
263 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Noya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noya is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Noya 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 Noya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.7% · 165
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.2% · 40
- Black or African American10.6% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino7.2% · 19
- Two or more races3.8% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
Popularity
Noya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Noya from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 167 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Noya remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Noya 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 Noya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Noyas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Noya
The name Noya originated from the Hebrew language and culture. It is believed to have first appeared around the 6th century BCE. The name is derived from the Hebrew word "noakh," which means "restful" or "peaceful."
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Noya can be found in the Book of Nehemiah, a book of the Hebrew Bible. In this text, Noya is mentioned as the name of a village located in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Noya. One such person was Noya ben Avraham (1492-1568), a renowned Jewish scholar and kabbalist who lived in the Ottoman Empire. He was known for his commentaries on various Jewish texts and his contributions to the study of Kabbalah.
Another notable figure with the name Noya was Noya al-Baghdadi (1002-1092), an influential Arabic mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Baghdad and made significant contributions to the fields of algebra and trigonometry. His works were widely studied and influential in the Islamic world during the medieval period.
In the 17th century, there was a famous Sufi mystic named Noya al-Din Nematollah Vali (1641-1718). He was born in Iran and is revered for his teachings on spirituality and his poetic works, which are still studied by Sufi practitioners today.
During the 19th century, Noya Diovisalvi (1829-1909) was an Italian painter and sculptor. She was known for her realistic portraiture and her works can be found in various museums across Italy.
Finally, in the 20th century, Noya Rao (1925-2010) was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer. She was instrumental in popularizing and preserving the Odissi dance form, which originated in the eastern state of Odisha, India. Rao received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the field of dance.
People
Noya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Noya 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
Noya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Noya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 317 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Noya 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 1,081,244 US residents.
Is Noya a common name?
We classify Noya as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 320 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Noya most popular?
The single biggest year for Noya was 2024, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Noya is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Noya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 263 people with the name Noya, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,158 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 Noya 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 Noya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Noya leans strongly female. 242 people counted with this name were female (92.7%), compared with 19 male bearers (7.3%). 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 Noya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Noya is White at 62.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.2%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Noya most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Noya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.7% (165 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 Noya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Noya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Noya 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 Noya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Noya 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 Noya 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 Noya?
You can see how many Americans are named Noya on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.