Naomi

Where the name comes from

• Hebrew
  my pleasantness; my delight
  נָעֳמִי (Na'omi), from no'am, "pleasantness, delightfulness." That word comes from the verb na'em, "was pleasant, was lovely."
  This is a biblical name from the Book of Ruth. In Hebrew it sounds close to "no-oh-MEE." Some baby-name books say it means "beautiful" or "my beloved." Those are popular meanings. The meaning attested by scholars is "pleasant" or "my delight."

Naomi across traditions

• Jewish (Hebrew Bible). Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law in the Book of Ruth. She loses her husband and both sons in Moab. Then she goes home to Bethlehem with Ruth. She tells the townswomen not to call her Naomi ("pleasant") but Mara ("bitter"). In the end the women celebrate Ruth's son Obed as Naomi's child. Obed becomes the grandfather of King David.
• Christian. Naomi was the biblical figure behind the name. English Bibles from the late Middle Ages spelled it Noemy. Protestants began using it as a first name in the 1500s. French records show it as Noémy by 1564. Catholic Bibles long used the Latin form Noemi.
• Spanish and Latin American. In Spanish Bibles she is Noemí. Ruth 1:20 reads: "No me llaméis Noemí, sino llamadme Mara" ("Do not call me Noemí; call me Mara"). Noemí is the usual Spanish form of the name.
• United States. Most popular in the 2020s. Peak US rank: #44, in 2023 and again in 2024 (SSA).

Who carried it

• Naomi of Bethlehem (Biblical (Book of Ruth)): Ruth's mother-in-law and the original bearer of the name. She is an ancestor of King David through her grandson Obed.
• Naomi Shihab Nye (Born 1952): Palestinian American poet and children's author. She grew up partly in San Antonio, Texas. She was the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022.

Forms in other languages

Noemí, Noemi, Noémi, Noémy, Noemy, Na'omi

Naomi in letter-number systems

Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.