Nieve
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- NEEV
- Origin
- Irish
- UK rank, 2025
- #1,280 for girls
- US rank, 2025
- #10,104 for girls
- Style
- Big in Scotland
Nieve is a girls' name of Irish origin, meaning “bright, radiant”. In 2025 it ranked 1,280th for girls in the UK (26 babies) and 10,104th for girls in the US (9 babies).
What does Nieve mean?
Irish: anglicised spelling of Niamh
“bright, radiant”
A spelling of Niamh; it also matches Spanish nieve, 'snow', as in Our Lady of the Snows, Nuestra Senora de las Nieves.
Is Nieve a girl's or a boy's name?
Nieve is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 26 girls in the UK and 9 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Nieve in the UK?
- Rank in 2025
- 1,280th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 26 about 1 in 11,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Falling down 40% in five years
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 26 girls in the UK were named Nieve, making it the 1,280th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 720th. Its busiest year was 2015, with 136 girls.
2025 had fewer girls named Nieve than any year since 2001.
Half of all the girls named Nieve in the UK since 1996 were born between 2008 and 2016, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 483 girls in the UK were given Nieve or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #133, up from #1,280 for this spelling alone.
Among girls in 2025, it was 1,512th in England and Wales and 474th in Scotland.
Nieve in the UK, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 26 | #1,280 |
| 2024 | 39 | #968 |
| 2023 | 47 | #827 |
| 2022 | 44 | #864 |
| 2021 | 50 | #805 |
| 2020 | 56 | #720 |
| 2019 | 57 | #738 |
| 2018 | 73 | #617 |
| 2017 | 61 | #727 |
| 2016 | 88 | #535 |
| 2015 | 136 | #377 |
| 2014 | 107 | #452 |
| 2013 | 97 | #476 |
| 2012 | 101 | #481 |
| 2011 | 105 | #458 |
| 2010 | 135 | #371 |
| 2009 | 130 | #375 |
| 2008 | 135 | #368 |
| 2007 | 56 | #678 |
| 2006 | 51 | #682 |
| 2005 | 51 | #667 |
| 2004 | 54 | #621 |
| 2003 | 33 | #863 |
| 2002 | 27 | #927 |
| 2001 | 22 | #1,042 |
| 2000 | 20 | #1,105 |
| 1999 | 15 | #1,347 |
| 1998 | 15 | #1,350 |
| 1997 | 11 | #1,664 |
| 1996 | 5 | #2,815 |
How popular is Nieve in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- 10,104th among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 9 about 1 in 180,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to call too few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1% chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 9 girls in the US were named Nieve, making it the 10,104th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 12,137th. Its busiest year was 2005, with 11 girls. It first appears in the records in 1996.
2025 had more girls named Nieve than any year since 2019.
Half of all the girls named Nieve in the US since 1880 were born between 2005 and 2018, the years shaded on the chart below.
In 2025, 113 girls in the US were given Nieve or a name that sounds the same. With every name's spellings counted this way, that ranks #1,559, up from #10,104 for this spelling alone.
Nieve in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 9 | #10,104 |
| 2024 | 8 | #11,117 |
| 2023 | 8 | #11,164 |
| 2022 | 0 | – |
| 2021 | 5 | #15,246 |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,137 |
| 2019 | 9 | #10,467 |
| 2018 | 8 | #11,422 |
| 2017 | 9 | #10,685 |
| 2016 | 0 | – |
| 2015 | 8 | #11,830 |
| 2014 | 7 | #13,063 |
| 2013 | 11 | #9,607 |
| 2012 | 8 | #12,193 |
| 2011 | 8 | #12,146 |
| 2010 | 7 | #13,442 |
| 2009 | 11 | #9,971 |
| 2008 | 7 | #13,827 |
| 2007 | 6 | #15,485 |
| 2006 | 0 | – |
| 2005 | 11 | #9,447 |
| 2004 | 10 | #9,887 |
| 2003 | 7 | #12,401 |
| 2002 | 7 | #12,181 |
| 2001 | 0 | – |
| 2000 | 7 | #11,794 |
| 1999 | 6 | #12,681 |
| 1998 | 6 | #12,420 |
| 1997 | 0 | – |
| 1996 | 5 | #13,511 |
Names like Nieve
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Maeve, Caoimhe, Aoife, Quinn, Orla, Keira, Sloane, Bree, Phoebe, Eden, Fiadh, Rowan
Other spellings of Nieve
Names related to Nieve
More Irish names
Oscar, Rory, Finn, Aiden, Ryan, Nolan, Cody, Erin, Ronan, Connor, Declan, Casey, Kennedy, Callan, Lennon, Cillian
Sources
Figures from Baby names in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics), Babies' first names (National Records of Scotland), Baby names (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency) and Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Nieve: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/nieve, updated 20 October 2026.