Nora
Nora is a girl's name that peaked in 2025, when it was the 20th most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 20th. About 133,000 Noras are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 11.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Nora boys named Nora
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 193,922
- Estimated living today
- 133,000
- Median age today
- 11
- Peak year
- 2025
- Best rank
- 20th
- Rank in 2025
- 20th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 193,138 / 784
How old the living Noras are
born that year still alive today
Of the 193,922 babies given the name since 1880, about 133,000 are alive — 69 in every hundred. Roughly 83,000 of them are children and 18,000 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2014 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Short form of Eleanor or rarely, of Honora.
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Noras
- Nora Ephron (1941–2012)American film director and writer
- Nora Roberts (born 1950)American romance writer
- Nora Fatehi (born 1992)Canadian actress (1992-present)
- Nora Gjakova (born 1992)Kosovo judoka
- Nora Arnezeder (born 1989)French actress and singer
- Nora Mørk (born 1991)Norwegian handball player
- Nora Zehetner (born 1981)American actress
- Nora Tschirner (born 1981)German actress
People named Nora with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Nora is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Nora is most concentrated in Kentucky (1.5×), Minnesota (1.5×), New Hampshire (1.4×), North Dakota (1.3×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2025
The most popular girls’ names the year Nora peaked:
Nora elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France girls | Nora | 24,195 | 89th |
| Spain girls | Nora | 17,978 | 41st |
| Norway girls | Nora | 13,248 | 1st |
| Sweden girls | Nora | 7,374 | 36th |
| Italy girls | Nora | 7,274 | — |
| Belgium girls | Nora | 6,586 | 11th |
| Switzerland girls | Nora +1 spelling | 5,276 | 15th |
| England and Wales girls | Nora | 4,650 | 75th |
| Austria girls | Nora | 4,541 | 16th |
| Ireland girls | Nora +1 spelling | 4,346 | 22nd |
| Denmark girls | Nora | 4,088 | 4th |
| Scotland girls | Nora | 334 | 72nd |
| Northern Ireland girls | Nora | 274 | 43rd |
| Poland girls | Nora | 36 birth registrations | 368th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Nora: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Nora | 3,735 | 0.300% | 13th |
| German girls | Switzerland | Nóra | 22 | 0.002% | 770th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Nora | 1,286 | 0.296% | 12th |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Nora | 226 | 0.347% | 6th |
| Romansh girls | Switzerland | Nora | 7 | 0.188% | 2nd |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
By canton, Nora is most concentrated in Obwalden, where 0.42% of children were given it – 34 of them.
Nora: rank by region
In 2025, Nora was given 5 times or more in 3 regions of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Nora | 2 | 223 |
| Wallonia | Nora | 51 | 47 |
| Brussels | Nora | 93 | 11 |
In 2024, Nora was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Spain.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| País Vasco | Nora | 3 | 113 |
In 2024, Nora was among the 10 most common names in 2 regions of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Nora | 8 | 1 |
| Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano | Nora | 10 | 22 |
In 2025, Nora was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pomorskie | Nora | 209 | 2 |
In 2025, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Nora appears in the lists for Province of East Flanders (2nd), Province of Antwerp (3rd), Province of Limburg (5th), Province of West Flanders (6th), Province of Flemish Brabant (19th), Province of Liège (38th), Province of Luxembourg (46th), Province of Hainaut (56th) and Brussels-Capital Region (93rd).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Spain after 10 names, Italy after 10 names, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Nora by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 653 | 20th |
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 2 | 538th |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Nora among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| the Netherlands girls | Nora | 5,921 | 7,007 |
| Finland girls | Nora +1 spelling | 2,201 | 2,569 |
| the Netherlands boys | Nora | — | 18 |
A count of people on a register – the Netherlands on 1 January 2018, Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Where Nora lives in Spain
Not a count of births but of people: 23,045 women called Nora were living in Spain on 1 January 2025, of every age, born in any year. Where they live is not spread evenly.
Women: the provinces where it is densest
| Province | Spelling | People | Per thousand | Place there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gipuzkoa | Nora | 2,149 | 5.734 | 22 |
| Ceuta | Nora | 163 | 3.935 | 48 |
| Melilla | Nora | 146 | 3.372 | 56 |
| Bizkaia | Nora | 1,390 | 2.308 | 97 |
| Araba/Álava | Nora | 388 | 2.236 | 98 |
| Girona | Nora | 915 | 2.210 | 89 |
Listed in 52 of Spain's 52 provinces. The rate is the source's own, not a share worked out here.
Related names
Nora against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.