Noma
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Noma is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in South Africa than in any other country. In English, recorded as A gangrenous disease leading to tissue destruction of the face, especially the mouth and cheek.
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 8.9K(inferred from the name graph)
- USUnited States1 in 435K
- BWBotswana≈1 in 27K
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.
- South Africa (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 171 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 8.9K (inferred from the name graph)
≈6,300 people, est.
Highest-authority source
South Africa, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A gangrenous disease leading to tissue destruction of the face, especially the mouth and cheek.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.
How Noma is read(measured from records)
Noma is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English64%
A gangrenous disease leading to tissue destruction of the face, especially the mouth and cheek.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- Japanese7.0%
Rōmaji transcription of のま
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Noma 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZA South Africa | ≈6,300 est. | ≈1 in 8.9K | — | Noma | 25 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈2,200 est. | ≈1 in 98K | listed | Noma | 25 |
| US United States | 765 | 1 in 435K | 745 | Noma | 171 |
| EG Egypt | ≈550 est. | ≈1 in 189K | — | Noma | 14 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 917K | — | Noma | 33 |
| SY Syria | ≈110 est. | ≈1 in 177K | — | Noma | 7 |
| BW Botswana | ≈85 est. | ≈1 in 27K | listed | — | 2 |
| IE Ireland | ≈45 est. | ≈1 in 115K | — | Noma | 10 |
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. 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)
Noma is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Sunny.
as a nameThe African book of names
In Portuguese, noma (gangrenous disease of the mouth and cheeks)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Zulu, although, even though, even if
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Swahili, problem, trouble
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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)
- Noma Seijib. 1878JPJapanese publisher (1878-1938)
- Hiroshi Nomab. 1915JPJapanese writer (1915–1991)
- Tomoichi Nomab. 1932JPJapanese politician and lawyer (1932-2012)
- Takeshi Nomab. 1934JPJapanese politician (1934-2023)
- Koremichi Nomab. 1937JPJapanese film producer (1937-1987)
- Sawako Nomab. 1943JPJapanese publisher (1943-2011)
- Takeshi Nomab. 1958JPJapanese politician
- Akiko Nomab. 1980JPJapanese musician
- Anna Nomab. 1986JPJapanese AV idol
- Takayoshi Nomab. 1993JPJapanese baseball player (1993-)
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 30 sources across 14 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 152 | #120,164 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 146 | #118,853 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 140 | #115,489 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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 Noma mean, and where does it come from?
- A gangrenous disease leading to tissue destruction of the face, especially the mouth and cheek. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- Is Noma a male or female name?
- Noma 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.
- In which country does Noma have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 6.3 thousand people named Noma in South Africa, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled noma.
- How common is the name Noma?
- In the United States, the national register counted 765 people named Noma in 2020, about 1 in 435 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Noma?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/nomaThe 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; a free API key gives 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, “Noma”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.