Niamh
given name · English · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Niamh is a given name, most frequently recorded in Ireland, where it is the 49th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: ‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld.
- IEIreland1 in 389◐
- GBUnited Kingdom1 in 12K
- AUAustralia1 in 18K
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈2.0K ●
- Sources
- 230 ●
- 1 in 117K ◐
across 9 countries
27K records
Official registry-verified
Iceland
Meaning & origin●
‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE Ireland | #49 | 23,959 | 7.2K rec. | — | 106 | Niamh | 141 |
| GB United Kingdom | #825 | 17,930 | 6.4K rec. | — | 54 | Niamh | 179 |
| AU Australia | — | 6,363 | 5.2K rec. | — | 6 | Niamh | 136 |
| US United States | — | 1,648 | 4.9K rec. | 1 in 202K | 1.6K | Niamh | 230 |
| CA Canada | — | 785 | 348 rec. | — | 2 | Niamh | 70 |
| FR France | — | 663 | 502 rec. | — | listed | Niamh | 101 |
| DE Germany | — | 229 | 215 rec. | — | 1 | Niamh | 37 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | 186 | 76 rec. | — | 11 | Niamh | 44 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 126 | 109 rec. | 1 in 137K | 126 | Niamh | 30 |
| BR Brazil | — | 102 | 91 rec. | — | — | Niamh | 12 |
| AE United Arab Emirates | — | 98 | 28 rec. | — | — | Niamh | 23 |
| BE Belgium | — | 67 | 57 rec. | — | — | Niamh | 13 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- English52K85%
- Spanish1.5K2%
- French1.2K2%
- Japanese7861%
- German5801%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| English | 52,458 | 85% |
| Spanish | 1,494 | 2% |
| French | 1,189 | 2% |
| Japanese | 786 | 1% |
| German | 580 | 1% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Niamh is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In French, Irish Gaelic name meaning 'bright' or 'radiant'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, Origine celtique, signifie « radieuse ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Irish Gaelic: name meaning ‘brightness, beauty’. It was borne in Irish mythology by the daughter of the sea god, who fell in love with the youthful Oisín, son of Finn MacCool, and carried him off over the sea to the land of perpetual youth, Tír na nÓg. It is now a very popular given name in Ireland.
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Over time●
Show as table
| Year | records |
|---|---|
| 1969 | 5 |
| 1980 | 8 |
| 1984 | 8 |
| 1989 | 14 |
| 1990 | 9 |
| 1991 | 9 |
| 1992 | 13 |
| 1993 | 15 |
| 1994 | 22 |
| 1995 | 37 |
| 1996 | 24 |
| 1997 | 44 |
| 1998 | 47 |
| 1999 | 47 |
| 2000 | 60 |
| 2001 | 69 |
| 2002 | 57 |
| 2003 | 67 |
| 2004 | 69 |
| 2005 | 57 |
| 2006 | 69 |
| 2007 | 58 |
| 2008 | 74 |
| 2009 | 56 |
| 2010 | 43 |
| 2011 | 60 |
| 2012 | 46 |
| 2013 | 44 |
| 2014 | 53 |
| 2015 | 35 |
| 2016 | 45 |
| 2017 | 37 |
| 2018 | 40 |
| 2019 | 44 |
| 2020 | 33 |
| 2021 | 35 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 33 |
| 2024 | 51 |
| 2025 | 43 |
US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 40 years between 1969–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.
Notable people with this name●
- Niamh Cusackb. 1959IEIrish actress
- Niamh Kavanaghb. 1968IEIrish singer
- Niamh Faheyb. 1987IEIrish association football player
- Niamh Walshb. 1988IEIrish actress
- Niamh Algarb. 1992IEIrish actress
- Niamh Wilsonb. 1997CACanadian actress
- Niamh Charlesb. 1999GBEnglish footballer
- Niamh McGradyb. 2000GBIrish actress
- Niamh McCormackb. 2001IEIrish actress
- Niamh McAnallyIEauthor
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence●
Attested in 42 sources across 22 countries.
Reference works 3
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 304 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Niamh?
- We estimate roughly 2.0 thousand people bear Niamh (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.
- In which country does Niamh have the most bearers?
- Niamh is most frequently recorded in Ireland, where it is most often spelled niamh.
- How common is Niamh compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Niamh is the 49th most common given name of 13,994 given names recorded there.
- Is Niamh a male or female name?
- Niamh is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What does the name Niamh mean?
- Recorded meaning: ‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/niamhThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Niamh” — the 49th most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.