Nanna
A feminine name of Norse origin meaning "daring" or "brave".
Name Census estimates that about 39 living Americans carry the first name Nanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nanna today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nanna births was 1925 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nanna. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Nanna is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Nannas were born before 1970.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Nanna. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
39
~ 1 in 8,788,573 Americans
Peak year
1925
12 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1994 SSA rank
#15,005
Tracked since 1882
Census
Nanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 278 people with the first name Nanna, which placed it at #31,017 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
#31,017
National first-name rank
People counted
278
278 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nanna is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (13.3%) and Hispanic (7.9%). 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 Nanna 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 Nanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.5% · 185
- Black or African American13.3% · 37
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 19
- Two or more races3.6% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 5
Popularity
Nanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nanna from the 1880s through to the 1990s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 64 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nanna 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 Nanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nanna
The name Nanna has its origins in the ancient Sumerian language, one of the earliest known written languages, which was spoken in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 3500-3000 BCE. It is derived from the Sumerian word "nanna," meaning "moon" or "moon god."
In Sumerian mythology, Nanna was the name of the moon god, also known as Sin or Suen. He was one of the most important deities in the Sumerian pantheon and was associated with wisdom, fertility, and the cycles of nature. The name Nanna was therefore a common name given to children in ancient Sumer as a way to honor this powerful deity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nanna can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest known works of literature, which dates back to around 2100 BCE. In this epic, Nanna is mentioned as the father of the goddess Ishtar.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nanna. One of the earliest recorded was Nanna, the wife of King Shulgi of the Sumerian city-state of Ur, who lived around 2100 BCE. Another prominent bearer of the name was Nanna, the daughter of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who lived in the 6th century BCE.
In ancient Greek mythology, the name Nanna appears as the name of one of the daughters of the river god Sangarius. She was said to have been abducted by the god Dionysus.
During the Renaissance period, the name Nanna was used by the Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) in his famous work, the Decameron. One of the characters in the collection of tales is named Nanna.
In more recent times, one of the most famous bearers of the name was Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005), a Danish furniture designer and ceramist who was known for her innovative and functional designs.
Another notable Nanna was Nanna Skouw (1936-2019), a Danish author and poet who wrote several collections of poetry and children's books, and was awarded the prestigious Danish Critics Prize for Literature in 1995.
People
Nanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nanna 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
Nanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nanna 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 8,788,573 US residents.
Is Nanna a common name?
We classify Nanna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 50.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 241 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Nanna was 1925, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nanna is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 278 people with the name Nanna, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,017 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 Nanna 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 Nanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nanna leans strongly female. 272 people counted with this name were female (96.5%), compared with 10 male bearers (3.5%). 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 Nanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nanna is White at 66.5%. The next largest groups are Black (13.3%) and Hispanic (7.9%). 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 Nanna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.5% (185 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 Nanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nanna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Nanna 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 Nanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nanna 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 Nanna 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 many people have the name Nanna?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.