Niamh
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Niamh is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Ireland than in any other country, where it is the 79th most common given name. Recorded meaning: ‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld.
- IEIreland≈1 in 757(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 15K
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 17K
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.
- Ireland (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 265 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 757 (inferred from the name graph)
≈6,800 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld.
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 4 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Niamh 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IE Ireland | #79 | ≈6,800 est. | ≈1 in 757 | 106 | Niamh | 157 |
| GB United Kingdom | #971 | ≈3,900 est. | ≈1 in 17K | 54 | Niamh | 226 |
| AU Australia | — | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 15K | 6 | Niamh | 145 |
| US United States | — | 1,666 | 1 in 200K | 1.6K | Niamh | 265 |
| CA Canada | — | ≈190 est. | ≈1 in 196K | 2 | Niamh | 93 |
| AE United Arab Emirates | — | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 72K | — | Niamh | 26 |
| NZ New Zealand | — | ≈86 est. | ≈1 in 57K | 11 | Niamh | 57 |
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: NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). 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)
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.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- 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(measured from records)
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 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Niamh mean, and where does it come from?
- ‘Bright’; in mythology, princess of the Land of Promise who went with Ossian to the Otherworld. Recorded by Irish first names.
- What are other forms of the name Niamh?
- In the etymology graph, Nia is a form of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Niamh have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 6.8 thousand people named Niamh in Ireland, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled niamh.
- 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.
- How common is the name Niamh?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,666 people named Niamh in 2020, about 1 in 200 thousand residents.
- How common is Niamh compared with other names?
- In Ireland, Niamh is the 79th most common given name of 14,976 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Niamh?
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/niamhThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Niamh” — the 79th most common given name in Ireland. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.