Nautica
Feminine · “Greek naus”
Nautica is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,240 girls against 55 boys since 1880.
Nausea means seasickness. Greek naus, a ship, gives nautical, nautilus, astronaut and argonaut, and also nausea, which is what happens to you on a boat. The same root gives the nave of a church, named because the vaulted ceiling looks like an upturned hull.
How old is the name Nautica?
Nautica first appears in US birth records in 1992 — 33 years ago. The typical Nautica alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 2,200 people named Nautica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nautica most popular?
Nautica peaked in 1999, reaching #874 nationally. Today it ranks #8860, 7,986 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Where it comes from
From naus to Nautica
The story of Nautica
The naus root spreads widely and the connections are not obvious. Nausea is naus plus a suffix, literally ship-sickness, and the word was general in Greek before English narrowed it. Nautilus is a little sailor, named for the shell's supposed habit of sailing on the surface. Astronaut is a star-sailor, coined in 1928; cosmonaut and argonaut are built the same way. The nave of a church comes from Latin navis, a ship, which is the same word: the architectural term describes the shape of the vaulting, and the church-as-ship metaphor was already old when it was applied. Navy, naval and navigate are from navis too. So a clothing brand named for the sea shares a root with a word for feeling ill, a word for an astronaut and a word for the middle of a cathedral.
Meaning
Greek naus, a ship
From Latin nauticus, of ships or sailors, from Greek nautikos and naus, a ship. The American given name follows a clothing brand founded in 1983 whose name was taken from the Latin. The same root gives nautical, nausea, astronaut, cosmonaut and the nave of a church. It peaks in 1999.
How the name formed
- naus
- nauticus
- Nautica
Pronouncing Nautica
NAW-tik-ah
Three syllables, stress on the first. The au is the vowel of law. Some speakers say NOT-ik-ah with a short o, which is the American reading of au in some words.
Nicknames for Nautica
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
- 1992
- Most girls named
- 1999246 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #874reached in 1999
- Change vs 2024
- +83.3%11 in 2025, from 6
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.
Nautica in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia.
Nauticas among us
people named Nautica are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was named Nautica
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 Ruthanne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nautica's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ruthanne climbed just as high around 1944, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ruthanne's path sketches the road Nautica is walking now.
Nautica 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
Nautica beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nautica in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Latin root is settled and productive in English vocabulary.
- The rhythm is even and easy to say.
- The sea association is a pleasant one.
- A clothing brand dominates the association.
- The front clip is a homophone of naughty.
- The name is closely dated to the 1990s.
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What they receive
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Nautica
Feminine · #8860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nauticas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Nautica are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nautica in 2025?
- Nautica ranks #8860 among US girl names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nautica?
- About 1 in every 146,115 US girls born in 2025 was named Nautica — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nautica with classmates?
- Nautica will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nautica
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 Nautica? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nautica and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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