Nora
Feminine
Nora is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 193,138 girls against 784 boys since 1880. See Nora as a boy name
Nora has been carried by Irish grandmothers, Norwegian stage actresses and American screenwriters, and it has been on the US charts since records began. Two syllables, both open, ending in a vowel that lets the name be called across a yard — and it has been shortened from longer names for so long that most people now forget it was ever short for anything.
How old is the name Nora?
Nora was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Nora alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 134,000 people named Nora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nora most popular?
Nora peaked in 2025, reaching #20 nationally. Today it ranks #20, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Nora appears on these lists:
- Short and sweet: names of four letters or fewer
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- Gorgeous — and about to be everywhere
- Names at their all-time peak, right now
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- all guides
Works in French and Irish families too:
Where it comes from
From Honoria to Nora
The story of Nora
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. A second stream comes from Eleanora and Leonora, clipped the same way across Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. Ibsen gave the name a stage life with Nora Helmer in A Doll's House in 1879, and the Arabic Nura, from nur, "light", arrives at the same four letters independently.
Meaningscholars disagree
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.
Cultural footprint
Nora Ephron (b. 1941) — Wrote When Harry Met Sally and directed Sleepless in Seattle
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- Honoria
- Honora
- Nóra
- Nora
Related forms: Nóra · Norah · Nóra · Nóirín / Noreen · Nora · Nura / Noura
Pronouncing 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.
Nicknames for Nora
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20256,380 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #20reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +3.8%6,380 in 2025, from 6,148
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.
Nora in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nóra in Irish — spelling variant
- Norah in English — spelling variant
- Nóra in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Nóirín / Noreen in Irish — related form
- Nora in Italian — same name
- Nura / Noura in Arabic — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio. INSEE rounds every published count to the nearest five for statistical confidentiality; the ranks are calculated from the exact figures. International figures from Statistics Canada, INSEE, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland. Sources
Noras among us
people named Nora are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 252 born in 2025 was named Nora
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nora
- #20
- Nora on the 2025 chart
- #17
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nora went to 6,380 girls in 2025, but Norah and Noora are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 7,651, which makes it the 17th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 210 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 252 for Nora itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Gloria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nora's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gloria climbed just as high around 1925, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gloria's path sketches the road Nora is walking now.
Nora is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Nora is headed
Nora should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Nora beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nora in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- 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.
- Already short, so it needs no nickname — though Nonie and Noreen are there if a family wants them.
- Currently charts in Canada, France, England & Wales and Scotland as well as the US.
- 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.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Nora to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Nora
Feminine · #20 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Noras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 134,000 people named Nora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nora?
- Nora is the most-used spelling in US records — 6,380 of the 7,651 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Norah and Noora.
- How popular is the name Nora in 2025?
- Nora ranks #20 among US girl names in 2025, with 6,380 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Nora?
- About 1 in every 252 US girls born in 2025 was named Nora — 6,380 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nora with classmates?
- Nora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nora
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hazel#21 · Camila#19 · Penelope#22 · Lily#18 · Chloe#23 · Elizabeth#17 · Ellie#24 · Harper#16
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nora? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nora and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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