Name of the Week: Noah

 

Origin:

Noah is the Anglicised form of the Hebrew name Noach (נֹ֫חַ) which derives from nuach (נ֫וּחַ) "rest, calm, comfortable." Famously, it features in the Old Testament as the name one of the great patriarchs whose story of building an ark, collecting animals two-by-two, to survive an apocalyptic flood is widely told.   Noah is also the transliterated form of the feminine name No'ah (נֹעָה) who features in the Old Testament as one of the five daughters of Zelophehad in the time of the exodus. In this case, it derives from the Hebrew verb noa (נ֫וּעַ) which refers to movement. This verb can be translated variously as "wave," "wander," "shake,""totter," and "sway." To avoid confusion, sometimes this feminine form is spelt Noa.  Noah is also an English surname, but in this case it is a variant of Noar/Nore which derives from the Old English ōra "shore bank, steep slope."

Usage:

Noah first came into use in Britain in the 16th century when parents began to turn to the Old Testament for name inspiration, with Abraham in the vanguard. Noah, however, was never especially popular, and several early baptisms prefer the Greek spelling Noe. Much like Ezra and Jonah, it was uncommon in use during this period but with enough biblical status to keep it moderately going.  It was not used frequently enough to rank among Smith-Bannister's top 50 names from 1538-1700.  Examples of Noah in baptism records increase into the 18th century, though some of this is simply thanks to the fact that more baptism records survive from this century than previously. It does not appear in Leslie Dunkling's top 50 rankings for England and Wales in either 1700 or 1800, but I suspect that by this later period it was touching into the top 100. During the 19th century, Noah was in much more regular use, and was in the bottom end of the top 100 in England and Wales. By the end of the century, however, Old Testament names gave way to other favourites such as Norman, Clifford, Ethel and Iris, as the ranks in England and Wales show:   . Data from the Surname Atlas (click to enlarge) 1860 #97 1870 #112 1880 #142 1890 #173 1900 #--  Data from the 1881 census (right) shows that Noah was most common in the North East of England, especially Staffordshire. It has some moderate use in Wales, especially in the South and the border counties, but very little usage in Scotland. Noah continued to be used under the radar for much of the 20th century, as Dunkling's data for the number of children registered with the name Noah in every 10,000 births in England and Wales demonstrates:  1900 1925  1935  1950  1955  1960  1965  1970  1975  1980  1985  1990     1    1     -     1     1     2     2     1     -     -     -    - The turn of this century saw several popular culture boosts to the name Noah; the impact had a direct impact on the name's popularity.  Actor Noah Wyle played Doctor John Carter in the huge TV hit ER from 1994-2009 -- in 1995, Noah hit #99 in the USA. Television soaps also had characters with the name including Noah Lawson in Home and Away (2000-2004) and Noah Dingle in Emmerdale (2004-5; 2009-).  In Hollywood, the huge hit film The Notebook saw Ryan Gosling in the lead male role as Noah Calhoun in 2004 and the biblical story of Noah's Ark was given an epic cinematic revamp in 2014 with Russell Crowe in the title role, followed by a BBC adaptation in 2015.  Back in 1996, Noah was only #225 (137 births) in England and Wales. It first hit the top 100 in 2003 at #94 (597 births), was in the top 50 by 2008 and reached #18 (3084 births) in 2010.  Noah for girls has only ranked (i.e. given to three children or more) once during that period: #5742 (3 births) in 2013. Noa on the other hand, has consistently ranked during that period, usually averaging between 20-40 births per year. In 2014, the different name variants ranked as followed: Noah #11 (4085 births) Noa #1061 (26 births) Noah didn't rank Noa #715 (55 births) In Scotland, Noah reached the top 100 in 2005 at #87 (73 births) and was #7 (321 births) in 2014. In 2015, Noah ranked #15 (265 births). In America, Noah has been in the top 5 since 2011 and has been #1 in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Famous Bearers:

History: * Noah Mann (1756–1789), a famous English cricketer. * Noah Worcester (1758–1837), American Congregational clergyman influential figure in American pacifism. * Noah Webster (1758–1843), American lexicographer and philologist. * Noah Porter (1811–1892), American educator and philosopher. Contemporary: * Noah Gordon (b. 1926), American novelist. * Noah Gordon (b. 1971), American country music singer and songwriter. * Noah Hathaway (b.1971), American actor. * Noah Wyle (b. 1971), American actor. * Noah Eli Gordon (b. 1975), American poet. * Noah Gray-Cabey (b.1995), American child actor. Literature and Other Media: * Noah Bennet, character in the NBC drama Heroes. * Noah Calhoun, main character in the film The Notebook (2004). * Noah Lawson, character in the Australian soap Home and Away (2000-2004). * Noah Dingle, a child character in the ITV soap Emmerdale (2004, 2005 & 2009-2016).

Variants:

Noach (Hebrew, Dutch), Noe (Biblical Greek, Biblical Latin), Noé (French, Spanish, Portuguese), Nuh (Arabic, Turkish) Noak (Swedish), Nooa (Finnish), Nojus (Lithuanian)

Pronunciation:

NŌ-ə [key]

Possible diminutives:

N/A

Sibling Names:

Daisy    Phoebe    Maisie     Freya    Ruby     Grace  Toby     Samuel     Oliver     Lucas     Max     Isaac

Name Lists:

Popular Biblical  Slim Softies  Ripe Renovations  Short and Sweet  Dickensian Names  Bronte Names

 

 

If you like Noah you may also like:    Noam, Moses, Amos, Owen, Seth, Zachary, Reuben, Jude, Caleb, Elijah

 

This post is in honour of the release of the US top names of 2015 in which Noah was #1. The top girls' name -- Emma -- will be the feature next week.