Versa
Feminine
Versa is a Latin word meaning turned, and it is also exactly the kind of short vowel-ending name American families were making in the eighteen-eighties. The Latin word it matches is the reason a line of poetry is called what it is called.
How old is the name Versa?
Versa first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Versa alive today was born around 1920, making them about 105 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Versa are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Versa most popular?
Versa peaked in 1892, reaching #908 nationally. See the whole 1892 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Versa
A verse is a turn. The Latin versus named the turn a ploughman makes at the end of a furrow, wheeling the team round to come back down the field, and Roman writers used it for a line of poetry because a line does the same thing: it runs to the margin and turns. Prose is the opposite and says so — prorsa, from proversa, meaning turned forward, going straight on without turning. The metaphor is exact and completely dead; nobody writing a verse today has any sense of a field in it. The oldest Greek inscriptions preserve the picture more literally still, because they are written boustrophedon — as the ox turns — with alternate lines running right to left, so a reader's eye ploughs the stone back and forth without lifting.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Latin feminine participle means turned, and it survives in English only inside the phrase vice versa. Whether any family meant that, or built the name from the sound as they built dozens of others in the same years, is not recorded.
Pronouncing Versa
VUR-suh
Two syllables with the stress at the front. Latin would have said it with a rolled r and a fuller second vowel, which is not what American families did with it.
Nicknames for Versa
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 192135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #908reached in 1892
- Change vs 1957
- −16.7%5 in 1958, 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.
Versas among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Versa are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Versa 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
- Five letters with no silent ones make it quick to write and simple to spell aloud.
- Two syllables with front stress is the plainest shape English has.
- It is genuinely rare and belongs to almost nobody now living.
- Vera and Versie will both be written for it.
- Anyone with Latin will hear half of a legal phrase.
- Nothing records its origin, so the meaning question has two answers and no evidence.
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Versa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Versas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Versa are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Versa in 2025?
- Versa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Versa with classmates?
- Versa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More V names
The most-given names starting with V, all years combined.
Virginia#525 · Victoria#54 · Valerie#127 · Vanessa#377 · Vivian#70 · Veronica#427 · Violet#13 · Vicki
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Versa? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Versa and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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