According to Genesis, eight people were aboard Noah’s Ark when the Flood began.
Genesis names Noah, his wife, his three sons, and the wives of those sons as the people who entered the Ark. The group therefore consists of four men and four women. The passage does not give the women’s personal names, so answers that provide names for all four are based on later traditions rather than the biblical text.
This number comes from the Genesis account, especially the narrative surrounding the Flood and the Ark’s passengers. It is distinct from the numbers of animals, which are described separately. Genesis also presents Noah’s household as the human family preserved through the catastrophe.
The figure is sometimes confused with the number of people saved in other Flood traditions or with the total number of humans who may have lived before the Flood. In the New Testament, 1 Peter also refers to “eight souls” being brought safely through the water, reinforcing the traditional Christian reading of the Genesis number.