How popular is the baby name Nasiya in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Nasiya.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Nasiya


Posts that Mention the Name Nasiya

Inconspicuous anagram baby names: Blake/Kaleb, Hale/Leah

letters

I recently updated my old anagram baby names post to make it much more comprehensive. As I worked on it, though, I noticed that many of those sets of names had obvious similarities, such as the same first letters and/or the same rhythm.

So I thought I’d make a second, shorter list of anagram names that were less conspicuously similar. Specifically, I wanted the second list to feature sets of names with different first letters and different numbers of syllables.

And that’s what you’ll find below — pairs of anagram names that are relatively distinct from one another. So much so that, at first glance (or listen), some might not even strike you as being anagrammatic at all. :)

Click on any name to check out its popularity graph…

Most of the names above have a clear number of syllables, but a few do not. (I categorized them according to my own interpretation/accent.) So, if you’re interested in using any of these pairings, just remember to test the names out loud first!

Which of the pairs above do you like best?

Where did the baby name Nasiriyah come from in 2003?

Aftermath of the Battle of Nasiriyah, 2003

The name Nasiriyah was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 2003:

  • 2005: unlisted
  • 2004: unlisted
  • 2003: 15 baby girls named Nasiriyah [debut]
  • 2002: unlisted
  • 2001: unlisted

Where did “Nasiriyah” come from, and what happened in 2003 to draw people’s attention to it?

It came from the city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. The city was founded and named after a local sheikh name Nasir in the 1870s. (The Arabic name Nasir means “helper.”)

The event that introduced Nasiriyah to the American public was the Iraq War (which overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein and, thereby, had an influence on Iraqi baby names). The Battle of Nasiriyah, one of the first major battles of the war, was fought between U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces and lasted from March 23 to April 2.

(One of the female soldiers involved in the battle, Jessica Lynch, had a baby girl in 2007 and gave her the middle name Ann in honor of Lori Ann Piestewa, the first woman in the U.S. military killed in the Iraq War.)

What do you think of Nasiriyah as a baby name? Do you like it more or less than the similar names Nayirah and Nasiya?

Sources: Nasiriyah – Wikipedia, U.S. Marines in Battle: An-Nasiriyah (PDF)

Where did the baby name Nasiya come from in 1984?

Nasiya Jobe on the cover of Jet magazine (June, 1984).
Nasiya Jobe on the cover of “Jet“

In 1984, both Nasiya and Laken debuted in the U.S. baby name data with 19 baby girls.

Laken, inspired by Santa Barbara, went on to reach the top 1,000 for a 6-year stretch in the 1990s.

Nasiya, on the other hand, never really gained traction.

  • 1987: unlisted
  • 1986: 5 baby girls named Nasiya
  • 1985: 5 baby girls named Nasiya
  • 1984: 19 baby girls named Nasiya [debut]
  • 1983: unlisted
  • 1982: unlisted

This may have been because it was inspired not by a popular soap opera, but by a little girl who was only in the news for a matter of months before slipping into obscurity again.

Nasiya Jobe, a 5-year-old long distance runner from Richmond, California, started making headlines in 1984.

She was on the cover of Jet in June. At that time, she held eight national records for her age group.

In mid-July, various U.S. newspapers ran a photo of Nasiya being passed the Olympic Torch at the start of her 1-kilometer leg of the relay between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

She appeared once more in Jet, twice in Ebony Jr!, and also in other publications. She even appeared on several TV programs, including Good Morning, America.

In a lengthy Sports Illustrated article that September, Nasiya’s father Darrell explained that her name was pronounced NAS-ee-yuh and meant “child of God” in Hebrew. (I can’t find any proof of this.)

SI also mentioned that “[s]he currently holds nine national age-group records and has two more pending for distances ranging from 400 (1:50.5) to 15,000 meters (1:17:56).”

Nasiya turned 6 that November.

The following year, she was profiled by People Magazine in January and Weekly World News in April. WWN mentioned that she was up to 11 national records at that point.

And then…nothing. She seems to disappear. Did she stop doing media appearances/interviews? Did she stop running altogether? I don’t know.

But at least one of her records still stands: her half-marathon time of 1:51:31, which she set at the age of 5 years and 328 days, remains a World Single-Age Record for women according to the Association of Road Racing Statisticians.

Sources:

Image: © 1984 Jet