Naomi
113,178 people in America carry this name — ranked #498 of 923.
A name with a settled sense and a settled sound.
Say it nay OH mee
3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part
Phonetic transcription
N EY0 OW1 M IY0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.
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People counted 113,178 2020 Census
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Rank #498 Common
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Per 100,000 37.5 about 1 in 2,929 people
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As a surname 187 ranked #102,571 the other way round
Where Naomi comes from and what it means
Hebrew in origin, reading literally as “pleasant”.
Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.
How often Naomi has been given
169,075 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2020, with 4,066 of them.
Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.
Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.
Middle names that fit Naomi
Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.
Better avoided
- Naomi Nancy — same opening
- Naomi Nicole — same opening
- Naomi Irene — runs together
Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.
On the way up
Naomi is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.
Is Naomi a boy's or a girl's name?
As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.
Where in America Naomi is thickest on the ground
In Hawaii the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.
- Hawaii ×2.3
- Alaska ×2.0
- New Mexico ×1.7
- the District of Columbia ×1.6
- Washington ×1.6
Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.
Names about as common
The nearest entries above and below by number of people.
Who carries it today
- White alone (non-Hispanic) — 46.1%
- Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 17.6%
- Hispanic or Latino origin — 22.2%
- Two or more races — 7.3%
- Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 5.9%
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.9%
Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.
Try it Full-Name Estimator
Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.
Where this page gets its numbers
- Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
- Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
- Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.
Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Hebrew origin