Nereida
Feminine · “sea nymph”
Nereida is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,697 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Nereida is a plural made singular. The Nereids were the sea nymphs of Greek myth, fifty of them, daughters of one old man of the sea, and Spanish took the group name and gave it to one girl at a time.
How old is the name Nereida?
Nereida first appears in US birth records in 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Nereida alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 3,500 people named Nereida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nereida most popular?
Nereida peaked in 1981, reaching #982 nationally. See the whole 1981 chart.
Where it comes from
From Nereus to Nereida
The story of Nereida
Homer and Hesiod both list the Nereids, and the lists do not agree; between them they name well over fifty, each with a word for a quality of the sea — the swift one, the one with fair ankles, the one who gives safe passage. Thetis, the mother of Achilles, is the best known. They were not distant deities but the ones sailors actually prayed to, and their images turn up on Greek and Roman sarcophagi carrying the dead across the water. Spanish drew the name out of that mythology in the modern period, in the same way it took Aurora and Diana, and Nereida is now an ordinary given name in Spain, Puerto Rico and much of Latin America.
Meaning
sea nymph, daughter of Nereus
From the Greek Nereis, plural Nereides. Nereus himself was called the Old Man of the Sea, a shape-shifter who told the truth when he was caught, and his daughters took their name from his.
How the name formed
- Nereus
- Nereis
- Nereida
Related forms: Nereida · Nereide · Nereida · Nereis
Pronouncing Nereida
neh-RAY-duh
Three or four syllables depending on the speaker, with the weight in the middle. Spanish gives the middle vowels their full value, neh-REH-ee-dah.
Nicknames for Nereida
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
- 1936
- Most girls named
- 1982129 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #982reached in 1981
- Change vs 2022
- +12.5%9 in 2024, from 8
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.
Nereida in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nereida in Spanish — same name
- Nereide in Italian — same name
- Nereida in Portuguese — same name
- Nereis in Greek — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Nereidas among us
people named Nereida 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
Nereida 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
- It is a standing name across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world and needs no explanation there.
- The mythology behind it is documented, specific and easy to tell a child.
- Nery and Ida are ready short forms with quite different characters.
- English speakers will need the pronunciation given, and will offer Nereida, Nerida and Nereyda in return.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
- Outside Spanish-speaking company the mythology behind it is not widely known.
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What they receive
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Nereida
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Nereidas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,500 people named Nereida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nereida in 2025?
- Nereida is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Nereida with classmates?
- Nereida will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nereida? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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