Noa

The biblical Noa appears in the Book of Numbers, chapter 27, as 1 of the 5 daughters of Zelophehad, a man of the tribe of Manasseh who died in the wilderness leaving no sons.

The daughters -Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah -petitioned Moses for the right to inherit their father’s land, and the resulting ruling established a precedent in biblical law for female inheritance under specific circumstances.

The episode is cited as 1 of the earliest recorded arguments for women’s property rights in Western legal tradition.

The name remained in Jewish usage through the medieval and early modern periods but was rarely encountered outside Hebrew-speaking communities until the 20th century.

The founding of the State of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent revival of biblical Hebrew names accelerated its adoption, and by the late 20th century Noa had become 1 of the most popular girls’ names in Israel.

The Israeli singer Achinoam Nini, known professionally as Noa and born in 1969, carried the name into international music through her collaborations with Pat Metheny and her representation of Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest.

According to U.S. Social Security Administration records, Noa first entered the top 1000 in 2003 and climbed steadily through the 2010s into the top 500.

The name is particularly well established in the Netherlands, where it ranked at number 1 for multiple years during the 2010s, as well as in Belgium, France, and Spain.

Its rise in English-speaking countries reflects both the wider popularity of biblical Hebrew names and a growing preference for short, cross-cultural forms.