Baby names starting with N: girls and boys

The most used girls' names beginning with N in 2025

N is a mid-sized letter for girls with a very flat top: 9,509 babies across 372 spellings, and its leader, Nova, takes only 7 per cent of the total. Three N names sit inside the top 100 and they are strikingly different from each other, a modern word name, a revived Victorian short form and an Edwardian classic.

The most used boys' names beginning with N in 2025

The boys' letter is a different shape entirely. Noah was given to 4,075 boys, which is 49 per cent of every boy in England and Wales who received an N name. After Noah the letter collapses: Nathan at 528 is the second largest and the only other N name inside the top 100, and nothing else reaches 400.

Which N names are rising and which are falling

Climbing

Nova gained 12 places to 68th and Nora 11 to 75th, the letter's two climbers, and Nancy gained 3. The ten-year columns are dramatic for both leaders: Nova is up 462 places since 2015 and Nora 229, the second and seventh largest ten-year rises in the entire girls' top 100. Noah held its exact rank in 2025 and is 5 places higher than in 2015.

Slipping

Nathan fell 11 places to 99th and is down 35 since 2015, the only published fall for the letter. Nancy, though up 3 places in the year, is 7 places lower than it was in 2015, which is a reminder that a good year does not always mean a good decade. No other N name has a published direction in either list.

What the published change columns cannot tell you

Nellie, Nevaeh, Nina, Naomi, Noor, Niamh, Nyla, Nathaniel, Nico, Nicholas and Nolan are all below rank 100 and carry counts only. Niamh at 228 is the clearest example of a name whose England and Wales figure understates it, since it is far more common in Ireland and Northern Ireland, which the ONS series does not cover.

How big a letter N really is

N is ninth for girls and fourteenth for boys by babies named. The interesting number is the concentration: at 49 per cent, Noah's share of its letter is beaten only by George's 52 per cent share of G among the letters of any size. One name effectively is the letter for boys.

The girls' side has the opposite problem and it makes the letter useful. Below Nova, Nora and Nancy the list runs through Nellie, Nina, Naomi, Noor, Niamh, Nyla, Noa, Norah and Nola, none of them above 500 babies and all of them recognisable. Few letters offer that many established options entirely outside the top 100.

Further N names in the published 2025 list

The ONS full list does not stop at the tables above, and the counts stay exact all the way down. For girls the next names in order of use are Nusaybah at 175, Nola at 165, Nia at 138, Nelly at 121, Natalia at 114, Neriah at 113, Nylah at 108, Nell at 100, Nicole at 99, Noura at 94, Navy at 90, Nadia at 81. For boys they are Nana at 60, Nuh at 55, Noa at 54, Nael at 52, Nikolas at 52, Navy at 49, Ned at 47, Neo at 47, Niall at 46, Natan at 43, Nayel at 42, Nivaan at 40. Each figure is the exact number of babies registered with that exact spelling during 2025, taken from the ONS full-list table rather than from the top 100. The letter carries 372 different girls' names and 216 different boys' names in the published data altogether, and any name given to two or fewer babies has been removed from it.

Choosing a N name: what the data changes

If you like Noah, know that you are choosing the second most popular boys' name in the country and about half of an entire letter. If you like the sound but not the frequency, Noa and Nuh appear in the same 2025 list with counts in the low hundreds and below. On the girls' side, note that Nora at 616 and Norah at 195 are counted separately, so the name is more common than either row shows.