Humanverse

Nehemiah vs Nehemias

American parents have registered 22,439 Nehemiahs since 1880, against 1,891 Nehemiases. Nehemiah is still ahead, with 768 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nehemiah against Nehemias, 1880 to 2025 0 250 500 750 1k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nehemiah Nehemias

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Nehemiah has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1968, when Nehemiah had 10 and Nehemias had 6.

Side by side

  Nehemiah Nehemias
Total US births 22,4391,891
Most in one year 969111
Babies in 2025 768111
Estimated living today 22,0001,900
Median age today 129
Peak year 20102025
Best rank 336th boys1,547th boys
Rank in 2025 429th1,547th
First recorded 18861968
Girls / boys 635 / 21,8040 / 1,891

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Nehemiahs alive today are over 12; half the Nehemiases are over 9. That is 3 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nehemiah and Nehemias.