Nehemiah
given name · Latin script
Meaning: The name Nehemiah, meaning 'the LORD comforts,' is associated with a strong and compassionate leader from the Bible
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/niːhəmaɪə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nehemiah is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 15K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 25K
- KEKenya≈1 in 6.1K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 289 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 6.1K (inferred from the name graph)
≈14,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Kenya, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
The name Nehemiah, meaning 'the LORD comforts,' is associated with a strong and compassionate leader from the Bible. It represents qualities of perseverance, vision, and the ability to rebuild and restore, making it a meaningful choice for a boy.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nehemiah counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | ≈14,000 est. | ≈1 in 15K | — | Nehemiah | 49 |
| US United States | 13,359 | 1 in 25K | 13K | Nehemiah | 289 |
| KE Kenya | ≈8,800 est. | ≈1 in 6.1K | — | Nehemiah | 17 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈960 est. | ≈1 in 278K | — | Nehemiah | 15 |
| ZA South Africa | ≈680 est. | ≈1 in 83K | — | Nehemiah | 15 |
| GY Guyana | 30 | 1 in 25K | 30 | — | 2 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Nehemiah is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
The name Nehemiah is of Hebrew origin and means "God comforts". It is strongly associated with the biblical leader who rebuilt Jerusalem's walls, symbolizing restoration, perseverance, and faithful leadership.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Nehemiah comes from the Hebrew Nəḥemyā (נְחֶמְיָה), which means "Yahweh comforts" or "The LORD comforts".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Nehemiah means "Yahweh has comforted" or "consolation of the Lord".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, Hebrew name meaning ‘God’s consolation’; used to anglicise Giolla-na-Naomh.
as a nameIrish first names
Hebrew, ‘God’s consolation’. In Ireland this name was used to anglicise Giolla-na-Naomh. Nehemias Donnellan was archbishop of Tuam.
as a nameIrish first names
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Nehemiah R. Knightb. 1780USAmerican politician (1780-1854)
- Nehemiah Eastmanb. 1782USAmerican congressman for New Hampshire (1782-1856)
- Nehemiah Perryb. 1816USAmerican politician (1816-1881)
- Nehemiah Greenb. 1837USAmerican politician (1837-1890)
- Nechemiah Rabinb. 1886ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli politician
- Nehemiah Levanonb. 1915LVIsraeli diplomat of Latvian descent (1915–2003)
- Nehemiah Persoffb. 1919USAmerican actor and painter (1919–2022)
- Zalman Nechemia Goldbergb. 1931ILnot in their usual nameIsraeli rabbi and rabbinic judge
- Nehemiah Tamarib. 1946ILIsraeli general
- SpotemGottemb. 2001USnot in their usual nameAmerican rapper
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).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 39 sources across 25 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 13K | #2,042 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 743 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 392 | #2,042 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 30 | #564 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 25 | — |
Reference works 2
- 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 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Nehemiah mean, and where does it come from?
- The name Nehemiah, meaning 'the LORD comforts,' is associated with a strong and compassionate leader from the Bible. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- How do you pronounce Nehemiah?
- A machine transcription gives /niːhəmaɪə/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Nehemiah a male or female name?
- Nehemiah is a male 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 are other forms of the name Nehemiah?
- In the etymology graph, Nahum, Neemias and Nechemya are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Nehemiah have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 14 thousand people named Nehemiah in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nehemiah.
- How common is the name Nehemiah?
- In the United States, the national register counted 13,359 people named Nehemiah in 2020, about 1 in 25 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Nehemiah?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nehemiahThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
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, “Nehemiah”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.