Nadja
A feminine name of Russian origin meaning "hope".
Name Census estimates that about 1,036 living Americans carry the first name Nadja. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nadja today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nadja births was 1996 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nadja. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nadja with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 330,844 Americans
Peak year
1996
52 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,796
Tracked since 1914
Census
Nadja in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,629 people with the first name Nadja, which placed it at #8,791 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,791
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,629 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
55.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nadja
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nadja is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (14.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nadja described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nadja at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White55.6% · 906
- Black or African American20.5% · 334
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 242
- Two or more races5.3% · 87
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 45
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 15
Popularity
Nadja: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nadja from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 266 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nadja by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nadja during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nadjas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Nadja, while Florida, New Jersey, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nadja
The name Nadja is a feminine given name of Russian origin, derived from the Slavic root "nad-" meaning "hope" or "expectation." Its earliest known use dates back to the 10th century, when it was a popular name among the nobility of Kievan Rus', the medieval East Slavic state.
In the 12th century, the name Nadja appeared in the Laurentian Codex, one of the oldest chronicles of the Kievan Rus' period. This historical document mentions a princess named Nadja, the daughter of Prince Vsevolod of Pskov, who lived in the late 12th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Nadja was widely used in various Slavic regions, including Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. It was particularly popular among the aristocracy and upper classes, as it was considered a name of elegance and sophistication.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Nadja was Princess Nadja Dolgorukaya, a Russian noblewoman born in the late 16th century. She was a member of the powerful Dolgorukov family and was known for her philanthropy and patronage of the arts.
Another notable Nadja from history was Nadja Boulanger, a French composer, conductor, and influential music teacher born in 1887. She was a pioneering figure in the field of music education and taught many famous composers, including Aaron Copland and Phillip Glass.
In the literary world, the name Nadja is associated with the surrealist writer André Breton. His 1928 novel "Nadja" is a semi-autobiographical account of his encounter with a young woman named Nadja in Paris. The book is considered a seminal work in the surrealist movement.
One of the most famous Nadjas of the 20th century was Nadja Regin, a Serbian-born actress and artist's model born in 1931. She was a muse to several renowned painters and sculptors, including Alberto Giacometti and Salvador Dalí, and was celebrated for her striking beauty and bohemian lifestyle.
In more recent times, the name Nadja has been carried by Nadja Michael, a Russian-American actress and model born in 1973, known for her roles in films such as "The Sweetest Thing" and "Pecker."
People
Nadja + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nadja as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nadja: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nadja?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,036 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nadja going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 330,844 US residents.
Is Nadja a common name?
We classify Nadja as "Rare". It ranks above 90.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,155 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nadja most popular?
The single biggest year for Nadja was 1996, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nadja is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nadja in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,629 people with the name Nadja, or 0.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,791 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nadja in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nadja?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nadja appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,620 people counted with this name, 99.5% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nadja?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nadja is White at 55.6%. The next largest groups are Black (20.5%) and Hispanic (14.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nadja most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nadja in the 2020 Census, accounting for 55.6% (906 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nadja in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nadja a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nadja in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nadja still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nadja in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nadja can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Nadja?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.