Name Awesome

Nena

Girls' name

Girl

Nena has been given to 4,896 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1963, with 112 recorded.

Babies named Nena, 2024

1 in 304,000

Nena over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nena: meaning, origin, and history

Girl

Spanish

What Nena means

Nena means “girl”, associated with nena.

Origin, language, and formation

Nena is used in German. Its origins include Spanish.

Nena comes through Spanish nena.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,896 girls were recorded with the name Nena between 1880 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 112 in 1963; its best national rank was #662 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 Nena?

Nena had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 304,000
11 of 3,342,801 births
Among girls only
1 in 147,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
210,642 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nena 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 2024 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 210,642 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nena. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nenas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nena was born before 1963 — so the typical Nena is around 62 today.

Median birth year
1963
About 62 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
16.9% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.3%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,576
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 16.9% of all recorded uses (827).

Is Nena 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 1963 (112)
Years since peak
62
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#662
1882

Spellings of Nena

Nena is not the most common spelling — Anna is, with 18.4% against Nena's 0.10%.

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.

Where Nena is used

Across 1910–2025, Nena was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 97,693 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 50,000
  2. 2Texas1 in 50,000
  3. 3Alabama1 in 100,000
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Florida1 in 100,000
  6. 6Georgia1 in 100,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Indiana1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Nena has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nena around the world

Where Nena 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.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2019
    #5,591
    in 2019
  • France
    1976–2019
    #5,533
    in 2019
  • Canada
    1991–2021
    #3,354
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1956–1985
    #671
    in 1985

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nena 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
#662
1882
Peak year
1963
112 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
4,896
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nena

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

ZenaXenaSenaTenaLeenaKenaJenaEnaMenaReenaCelenaSalenaIrenaSienaMalenaNeenaDeenaAdenaMakenaVenaKarenaRaenaMeenaDena

Names with a curve like Nena

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Nena, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ElbaRoseannaJannetteMimiSabraLizabethJanettaLesleeFeliceRoniJuliannKenneth

Sibling names for Nena

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 Nena

Top names of 1963, Nena's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1882Girls' names starting with NGerman Names