Nadja
Feminine · “Russian nadezhda”
Russian gives three sisters faith, hope and love. Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov are the ordinary Russian words for the three theological virtues of 1 Corinthians 13, and they are given as names, together, in a hagiography where three sisters of those names are martyred with their mother Sophia, wisdom.
How old is the name Nadja?
Nadja first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Nadja alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 1,100 people named Nadja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nadja most popular?
Nadja peaked in 1996, reaching #2451 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 6,409 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Where it comes from
From nadezhda to Nadja
The story of Nadja
The legend places a woman named Sophia, wisdom, in second-century Rome with three daughters named Faith, Hope and Charity, who are tortured and killed in front of her before she dies of grief at their grave. The names in Greek are Pistis, Elpis and Agape, and when the story reached the Slavic world it was translated rather than transliterated, so the Russian saints are Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov, using the everyday words. All three became common Russian women's names and remain so. The Greek forms did not travel the same way: Elpis and Pistis are rare, while the Latin translations Fides, Spes and Caritas gave English Faith, Hope and Charity through the Puritans by an entirely separate route. So the same three abstractions became names in three languages by three different mechanisms.
Meaning
Russian nadezhda, hope
Nadja is a German and Scandinavian spelling of Nadya, the Russian diminutive of Nadezhda, which is the ordinary Russian word for hope. It is a translation rather than a borrowing: the Greek Elpis, hope, was rendered into Slavonic as Nadezhda when the legend of Sophia and her daughters was translated. It peaks in the American data in 1996.
How the name formed
- nadezhda
- Nadya
- Nadja
Related forms: Nadya · Nadja · Nadia
Pronouncing Nadja
NAHD-yah
Two syllables, stress on the first. The German j is a y, so Nadja and Nadya are the same. The Russian has a palatalised d that English does not have, closer to a dy blend.
Nicknames for Nadja
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 199652 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2451reached in 1996
- Change vs 2023
- +120.0%11 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Nadja in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nadya in Russian — transliteration
- Nadja in German — same name
- Nadia in French — same name
Nadjas among us
people named Nadja are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Nadja
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roshelle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nadja's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roshelle climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roshelle's path sketches the road Nadja is walking now.
Nadja sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Nadja beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nadja in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and entirely positive.
- It is short and easy to say.
- It works across Russian, German, French and English.
- English readers give the j an English value.
- Nadia is the more common spelling in the United States.
- The full Russian form is unfamiliar outside Slavic communities.
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Nadja
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nadjas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Nadja are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nadja in 2025?
- Nadja ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nadja?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Nadja — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nadja with classmates?
- Nadja will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nadja
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lida#8860 · Lauretta#8860 · Dot#8860 · Bonita#8860 · Benita#8860 · Trixie#8860 · Adna#8860 · Sue#8860
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nadja? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nadja and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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