Norene
A feminine name derived from the French "Honore", translating to "honored one".
Name Census estimates that about 1,502 living Americans carry the first name Norene. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Norene today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Norene births was 1931 (121 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Norene. 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 Norene is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Norenes were born before 1964.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 228,199 Americans
Peak year
1931
121 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
2014 SSA rank
#18,516
Tracked since 1891
Census
Norene in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,239 people with the first name Norene, which placed it at #6,964 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
#6,964
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,239 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Norene
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Norene is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Norene 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 Norene at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.3% · 1,910
- Black or African American6.4% · 144
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 51
- Two or more races1.7% · 39
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 30
Popularity
Norene: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Norene from the 1890s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 982 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Norene 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 Norene during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Norenes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 24 states and territories. Michigan, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Norene, while Oregon, Kansas, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 78 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Norene
The given name Norene is a feminine variation of the French and English name Nora or Noreen, which is derived from the Old Norse name Nora, meaning "from Norway". Historically, the name was popular among the Norse Vikings who settled in parts of France and Britain during the 9th and 10th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Norene can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a record of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The name was likely introduced to England by the Norman French, who had adopted it from the Norse settlers in their region.
In the 12th century, the name Norene appeared in the writings of the Welsh historian and chronicler, Giraldus Cambrensis, who mentioned a woman with this name in his accounts of the Norman conquest of Wales.
During the Middle Ages, the name Norene was associated with several notable figures. One example is Norene de Warenne, a 12th-century English noblewoman who was the wife of Hamelin Plantagenet, an illegitimate son of King Henry II of England.
Another historical figure with the name Norene was Norene de Falaise, a Norman noblewoman who lived in the 11th century and was the mother of William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England.
In the 16th century, the name Norene was associated with Norene Boleyn, an English courtier who was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII.
Over the centuries, the name Norene has been borne by various individuals across different cultures and regions, including Norene Duval, a 17th-century French poet and playwright, Norene Köhler, a 19th-century German botanist, and Norene Bates, a 20th-century American actress and dancer.
People
Norene + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Norene 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
Norene: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Norene?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,502 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Norene 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 228,199 US residents.
Is Norene a common name?
We classify Norene as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,790 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Norene most popular?
The single biggest year for Norene was 1931, when 121 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Norene is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Norene in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,239 people with the name Norene, or 0.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,964 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 Norene 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 Norene?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Norene appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,230 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Norene?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Norene is White at 85.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (2.9%). 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 Norene most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Norene in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.3% (1,910 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 Norene in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Norene a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Norene 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 Norene still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Norene 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 Norene 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 share the name Norene?
Find out how many Americans are named Norene on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.