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Nanna

Girls' name

Brave, daring

Nanna has been given to 241 babies in the U.S. since 1882. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1925, with 12 recorded.

Babies named Nanna, 1994

1 in 743,000

Nanna over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nanna: meaning, origin, and history

Brave, daring

Old Norse

What Nanna means

Nanna means “brave, daring”, associated with nanþ-.

Origin, language, and formation

Nanna is used in Danish, Faroese, Finnish, Norwegian Nynorsk, Old High German and Swedish. Its origins include Old Norse.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Nanna is pronounced /ˈnɑnːɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 241 girls were recorded with the name Nanna between 1882 and 1994. Its highest annual count was 12 in 1925; its best national rank was #997 in 1882.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nanna?

Nanna had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1994, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1994
1 in 743,000
5 of 3,715,972 births
Among girls only
1 in 357,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1994
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
515,144 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nanna sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1994 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 515,144 children born in 1994 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nanna. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nannas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nanna was born before 1923 — so the typical Nanna is around 102 today.

Median birth year
1923
About 102 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
26.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
6.6%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
16
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 26.6% of all recorded uses (64).

Is Nanna rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1925 (12)
Years since peak
100
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
32.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#997
1882

Spellings of Nanna

Nanna is not the most common spelling — Nancy is, with 15.8% against Nanna's <0.01%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Nanna around the world

Where Nanna ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #454
    in 2025

Popularity data from Statistics Norway. SSB data under CC BY 4.0.

Nanna by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#997
1882
Peak year
1925
12 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
1994
All-time count
241
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nanna

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NaneaNanamiNandiAhnnaMennaMannaIonnaKannaNansiNaniLunnaFennaZennaVennaGeonnaFiannaEyannaSyannaYannaZeannaNnennaZannaGwennaSyenna

Sibling names for Nanna

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nanna

Top names of 1925, Nanna's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Girls' names starting with NUncommon Danish Girl Names