Nakita
Feminine · “unconquered”
Nakita is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,990 girls against 28 boys since 1880.
Nikita is a man's name in Russia and a woman's name in America, and the crossing happened in transit. Very few names change sex when they change countries; this one did it without anybody deciding to, simply because the ending looked wrong to English eyes for a man.
How old is the name Nakita?
Nakita first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Nakita alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 2,900 people named Nakita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nakita most popular?
Nakita peaked in 1986, reaching #683 nationally. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aniketos to Nakita
The story of Nakita
Russian took the Greek name and used it for men for a thousand years — a Soviet premier carried it, and so did a great many peasants and priests before him. English speakers meeting the name saw a word ending in -a, which in English almost always marks a woman's name, and read it accordingly. That reading became the American use, and the record shows the name given here almost entirely to girls from the middle of the twentieth century. The a in this spelling is doing something else again: it writes the unstressed first vowel as English hears it, which Russian would write with an i.
Meaning
unconquered
The Greek original is a compound meaning unconquered or victorious, and it was a man's name from the beginning. Nothing in the American spelling changes that; only the reading of it did.
How the name formed
- Aniketos
- Nikita
- Nakita
Related forms: Nikita · Aniketos
Pronouncing Nakita
nuh-KEE-tuh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Russian says nee-KEE-tah, with a fuller first vowel and the same stress.
Nicknames for Nakita
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
- 1954
- Most girls named
- 1986269 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #683reached in 1986
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%5 in 2024, 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.
Nakita in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nikita in Russian — same name
- Aniketos in Greek — related form
Nakitas among us
people named Nakita are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Nakita sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The stress in the middle gives it a lift most English names of its length do not have.
- Every sound in it is easy for an English speaker.
- Nikki is a ready short form with a life of its own.
- Nikita is the standard spelling and will be written instead.
- In Russia and much of eastern Europe the name reads as a man's, which matters for travel and for family.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
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Nakita
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Nakitas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Nakita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nakita in 2025?
- Nakita is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Nakita with classmates?
- Nakita will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nancy#965 · Nicole#382 · Natalie#89 · Norma#2002 · Nora#20 · Naomi#47 · Nellie#533 · Nina#324
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nakita? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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