Regarding Noa as a Japanese name, I would classify it as a modern name.According to the data that I got from namaejiten.com, it was a pretty rare name to start with before seeing a slight increase in its usage from around 1993 and 1994. From 1997, Noa started seeing a steeper increase in its usage. Thus, it became moderately popular in the 2000s and in the present.Regarding 乃愛's rankings, it first debuted in the top 500 in 1999 at 307th and, according to a survey by Benesse, it ranked 54th out of the top 100 last year. Overall, 872 girls in the (not so full) data were given this form of Noa. Two other most popular forms of Noa are 乃亜 and 乃彩 (亜 meaning "Asia, come after, rank next" and 彩 meaning "colouring, makeup, paint"). Compared to 乃愛, 277 and 168 girls were given the 2nd and 3rd most popular forms of Noa respectively.
Noa (no "H" added) would not be considered masculine in Japan (or at least, it would be considered mostly feminine). It is feminine-sounding if you pronounce the syllables precisely.
Noa is so beautiful & meaningful. I love Japanese names. ^___^ This is the perfect, acceptable spelling for a girl, not 'Noah' (Noah should be used only for boys).
― Anonymous User 8/7/2014
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This name can also be spelled using the kanji "no" from "nohara," meaning field, and the kanji "sora," which means sky/empty and can also be pronounced "a."