Noah is a somewhat surprising name to be so high in the popular boys names list. While some popular names have been very popular for decades, Noah has seen a drastic rise mainly in the last 10-15 years. This could be due to a popular culture mention, for example, as the name Noah now belongs to many television characters, or it could show a move toward the classy, historical name of a biblical character, without the name being too popular or too obscure, too easy to forget or too difficult to pronounce. For many parents Noah seems to be "just right."
The name Noah, meaning "Rest" and "Comfort" in Hebrew, belonged to the patriarch who was, according to the biblical story, ordered to build an ark that would contain two of each animal species, to protect them from the coming flood.
There are not many variations to the name in other languages, however, the name Noah is also used (and is very popular) for girls in Israel.
