Head to head · Girls' names
Nora vs Penelope
#20 vs #22 in 2025 · both climbing the charts fast
Nora is a whisker ahead (#20 vs #22 in 2025) and both are climbing the charts fast. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Nora leads 5 measures of 6; Penelope leads 0.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Nora #57, Penelope #892 — Nora higher
- 1890s: Nora #69, Penelope #1378 — Nora higher
- 1900s: Nora #94, Penelope #1827 — Nora higher
- 1910s: Nora #141, Penelope #1462 — Nora higher
- 1920s: Nora #178, Penelope #1005 — Nora higher
- 1930s: Nora #199, Penelope #830 — Nora higher
- 1940s: Nora #223, Penelope #282 — Nora higher
- 1950s: Nora #240, Penelope #411 — Nora higher
- 1960s: Nora #293, Penelope #577 — Nora higher
- 1970s: Nora #378, Penelope #882 — Nora higher
- 1980s: Nora #410, Penelope #1904 — Nora higher
- 1990s: Nora #459, Penelope #1903 — Nora higher
- 2000s: Nora #327, Penelope #649 — Nora higher
- 2010s: Nora #70, Penelope #73 — Nora higher
- 2020s: Nora #25, Penelope #24 — Penelope higher
Nora stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Penelope took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Nora | Penelope |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #57 | #892 |
| 1890s | #69 | #1378 |
| 1900s | #94 | #1827 |
| 1910s | #141 | #1462 |
| 1920s | #178 | #1005 |
| 1930s | #199 | #830 |
| 1940s | #223 | #282 |
| 1950s | #240 | #411 |
| 1960s | #293 | #577 |
| 1970s | #378 | #882 |
| 1980s | #410 | #1904 |
| 1990s | #459 | #1903 |
| 2000s | #327 | #649 |
| 2010s | #70 | #73 |
| 2020s | #25 | #24 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Nora
- Canada#14
- France#84
- England & Wales#86
- Scotland#86
Penelope
- England & Wales#36
- Canada#49
- Scotland#71
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Nora
Depends on the longer name behind it: "honor" or "light"
Nora is a shortened form, and it has more than one parent. From Honora, the Anglo-Norman and Irish name built on Latin honor, it carries the sense of "honor". From Eleanora and Leonora it inherits those names' own unsettled history. And Arabic Nura, from nur, "light", reaches the same spelling by a completely separate road. All three are in real use, which is why no single meaning can be given for the spelling alone.
Honoria → Honora → Nóra → Nora
How it traveled
The clearest line runs through Latin Honoria and Honorata to Honora, which the Normans brought to Ireland, where it became one of the most-used women's names for centuries in the forms Nóra and Nóirín. Irish emigration carried it to America, which is why it has never been absent from US records.
Penelope
Either "weaver" or a kind of duck, from Greek
Two readings compete. One links Πηνελόπη to πήνη (pēnē), "thread" or "weft", plus a root meaning face or eye — a reading that suits the loom in the Odyssey so neatly that scholars have long suspected it was invented to fit. The other, generally preferred by Greek etymologists, connects the name to πηνέλοψ (pēnelops), a wild duck. Neither has won outright.
Πηνελόπη (Penelopē) → Penelope (Latin) → Penelope (English)
How it traveled
The name is Greek and reaches us first through the Odyssey, composed in the eighth century BC, where Penelope holds Ithaca together for twenty years of her husband's absence. Roman writers carried the spelling into Latin unchanged, and English took it up during the Renaissance revival of classical names, when educated families began christening daughters out of Homer and Ovid.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Nora
NOR-uh
Stress on the first syllable everywhere it is used. In Irish, Nóra sounds much the same; the Arabic Nura is closer to NOO-rah, which is a different name meeting the same spelling.
- Nonie — The long-standing family pet form for Nora and Honora alike; informal, rarely written down.
- Norie — Informal, mostly spoken within the family; does not stand alone as a given name.
- No — A playground clip; useful to know it exists before someone else finds it.
Penelope
puh-NEL-uh-pee
Four syllables, stress on the second. The final -e is pronounced, not silent — readers who meet the name in print before they hear it sometimes try "PEN-uh-lope", which is the one thing to head off early.
- Penny — The standard English short form for generations, and long used as a given name in its own right.
- Pen — Clipped and informal, mostly within families and among friends.
- Nell — Used in British and Irish families, partly through Penelope's old role as an English substitute for Fionnghuala.
- Nellie — The older, more affectionate extension of Nell; also stands alone as a given name.
- Also Poppy.
Who has carried each name
Nora
Nora Ephron (b. 1941) — Wrote When Harry Met Sally and directed Sleepless in Seattle
Penelope
Penélope Cruz (b. 1974) — First Spanish actress to win an Oscar
Penelope Wilton (b. 1946) — Downton Abbey's Isobel Crawley
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Nora if you want…
- a name with fewer syllablesNora is 2 syllables to Penelope's 4
- a name that charts abroad tooNora is on the national lists of Canada, France, England & Wales and Scotland
Choose Penelope if you want…
- a name with more sound in itPenelope runs 4 syllables, Nora 2
- plenty of nickname options5 recorded short forms — Penny, Pen and Nell
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Nora
Strengths
- Spells itself. Four letters, one obvious pronunciation, no silent anything — a rare combination for a name this old.
- Unbroken presence in US records since the charts began, so it has never needed reviving and has no single decade attached to it.
- Works in French, English, Italian, Hungarian, Albanian, Arabic and the Scandinavian languages with little or no adjustment.
To consider
- Norah with an h is equally established, so she will spend her life confirming which one she is. Neither spelling is the odd one.
- The rise has been steep and is still going. A name that feels uncrowded now may be sharing the classroom register in a few years.
- It sits in a busy sound-neighborhood — Nova, Nola, Cora, Norah — and mishearings in noisy rooms are common.
Penelope
Strengths
- A documented record going back to Homer, with the spelling essentially unchanged since Latin — nothing about it needs explaining or defending.
- Penny, Pen and Nell are all long-established short forms, so there is a formal version and a casual one built in.
- Works in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese with at most an added accent, and Greek is its home language.
To consider
- The final -e trips people up in writing and in speech; expect a lifetime of gentle corrections from anyone who has only seen it on a page.
- It is climbing quickly, so a child born now may meet more Penelopes as a teenager than as a toddler, even if she is the only one in her year at first.
- Penny, the most natural short form, is also the word for a coin — worth knowing if you would rather she went by the full name.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Nora and Penelope in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Nora and Penelope?
Put both to the vote.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Every list here names both Nora and Penelope — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Nora or Penelope — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Nora or Penelope?
- Nora, in 2025: Nora ranked #20 with 6,380 babies; Penelope ranked #22 with 6,225 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Nora or Penelope?
- Nora. Over the last five years Nora moved up 10 places; Penelope moved up 4 places.
- Which is the older name, Nora or Penelope?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Nora and Penelope?
- About 134,000 people named Nora are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 104,000 people named Penelope are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Noras or Penelopes in the classroom?
- Nora will almost certainly be the only one in school. Penelope will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Nora, Penelope and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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