Pandora
Feminine · “all-gifted”
Pandora means all gifts, and the story turns on the fact that the gifts were the problem — she was made as a punishment and equipped by every god.
How old is the name Pandora?
Pandora first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Pandora alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 2,800 people named Pandora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Pandora most popular?
Pandora peaked in 1952, reaching #783 nationally. Today it ranks #4460, 3,677 places below that high. See the whole 1952 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From pan doron to Pandora
The story of Pandora
In Hesiod, Zeus has Pandora made to punish humanity for Prometheus's theft of fire, and each god gives her a quality — beauty, skill, a deceitful nature. The jar she opens is a jar, not a box; the box is a sixteenth-century mistranslation that stuck. Hope remains inside it, and what that means has been argued about for two and a half thousand years.
Meaning
all-gifted, all gifts
From Greek pan, all, and doron, a gift; the name can mean either the one given everything or the one who gives everything. Hesiod's account uses the first sense, since each god contributes something to her.
How the name formed
- pan doron
- Pandora
Related forms: Πανδώρα · Pandora
Pronouncing Pandora
pan-DOR-ah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Pandora
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
- 1912
- Most girls named
- 195392 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #783reached in 1952
- Change vs 2023
- −24.4%31 in 2025, from 41
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.
Pandora in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Πανδώρα in Greek — transliteration
- Pandora in Spanish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, Texas.
Pandoras among us
people named Pandora are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was named Pandora
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 Afton test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Pandora's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Afton climbed just as high around 1917, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Afton's path sketches the road Pandora is walking now.
Pandora 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
Where Pandora is headed
Pandora should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Pandora beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Pandora in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning that is completely transparent once explained.
- Dora is a complete short form in its own right.
- The jar-and-box mistranslation is a genuinely good fact.
- The story is about a punishment sent to humanity, which is a heavy association.
- A jewelry company and a music service both carry the name prominently.
- The Panda clip is unavoidable and children will use it.
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What they receive
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Pandora
Feminine · #4460 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Pandoras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Pandora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Pandora in 2025?
- Pandora ranks #4460 among US girl names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Pandora?
- About 1 in every 51,847 US girls born in 2025 was named Pandora — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Pandora with classmates?
- Pandora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Pandora
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jayce#4460 · Nikita#4460 · Magali#4460 · Emari#4460 · Rilyn#4460 · Danyla#4460 · Lynleigh#4460 · Mandy#4460
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Pandora? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Pandora and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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