Presented by

The first name 
Nora

Nora is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

The name Nora is very popular!

The first name Nora is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #34 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Nora, accounting for approximately 0.30 % of all newborn girls. In the entire USA, approximately 148,536 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Nora. That is 0.04 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Nora

What does the name 
Nora mean?

Since the first name Nora is the short form of several first names, it has several possible meanings: As a short form of the common Anglo-Norman name Honora, the meaning is ‘the respectable’. Nora can also be a modern form of Norberta, which means ‘the shining one from the north’. As a short form of Eleonora the name can also mean ‘the stranger’. Here, however, the origin of the name is not exactly clear. And in Arabic Noora comes from the word light.

Many famous people share the name Nora

A piano playing cat

Nora (*2004)
Nora is a cat who gained worldwide fame through video recordings in which she plays the piano. The video sequences are among the most successful YouTube videos. After international press coverage of the cat, CDs, DVDs, two books, three wall calendars and other merchandise such as T-shirts, posters and coffee mugs of Nora were sold.

A jazz and pop singer

Norah Jones (*1979)
Norah Jones is an American vocalist and pianist. She has established herself as one of the most successful jazz and pop singers and has released several chart-topping albums, including 'Come Away with Me' (2002), which won five Grammys, and 'Feels Like Home' (2004). Her musical style combines elements of jazz, folk and pop, and she is often praised for her unique voice and emotional lyrics.

A French actress

Nora Arnezeder (*1989)
The French actress and singer is not only known in the French region, but has also appeared in international films and series, including 'Safe House' (2012), 'Zoo' (2015 - 2016) and 'Army of the Dead' (2021). She has also appeared in plays, has been praised for her acting and received awards and nominations for her work in various films. Arnezeder received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song for her song 'Loin de Paname' from the French film 'Paris 36' (2008).

A famous screenwriter

Nora Ephron (1941 -2012)
Nora Ephron was an American screenwriter, director and producer. One of the most successful and influential women in the film industry, she wrote and directed many well-known films, including 'When Harry Met Sally' (1989), 'Sleepless in Seattle' (1993) and 'Julie & Julia' (2009). Ephron has also published books and essays and was a columnist and blogger. She has received numerous awards for her work, including an Academy Award nomination and a Tony Award.

A beststelling author

Nora Roberts (*1950)
American author Nora Roberts, who writes mainly in the romance genre, has published over 200 books since the 1980s. Many of them have been bestsellers. Her books have a large fan base and have been translated into many languages. Roberts is also known by the pen names J.D. Robb and Sarah Hardesty. She has won numerous industry awards, including the RITA Award and the Golden Leaf Award.

A dancer and actress

Nora Fatehi (*1992)
Nora Fatehi is a Canadian-Moroccan dancer, actress and model. Fatehi has appeared in Bollywood films, including Baahubali: 'The Beginning' (2015) and 'Stree' (2018). She is also known as a dancer and has appeared in a number of music videos. Praised for her stage presence and stunning dance performances, Fatehi has won several prestigious dancing awards. She has also worked as a model and television personality, and has a large social media following.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Nora, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Nora? Are you also called Nora? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

An asteroid

(783) Nora is an asteroid of the main belt, named after the title character in Henrik Ibsen's drama 'A Doll's House'.

The ancient...

pre-Roman city of Nora is considered the oldest city in Sardinia, according to the tradition of Pausanias. It is located south of the city of Pula in the metropolitan area of Cagliari.

The Nora...

is a right tributary and the 2nd longest tributary of the Selemdzha River in the Amur Oblast in the Far East of Russia. The name originated in 'nehru', the Evenki word for 'grayling'.

Nora,...

also spelled Norah, is the second largest island in the Dahlak Archipelago in the Red Sea, which is part of Eritrea.

A mountain

Mount Nora is a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, with an elevation of about 5,525 ft (1,684 m).

Nora -
in the 2000s more popular than ever before

If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few girls' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 432 girls' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Nora is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Nora has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2021, the name even made it to rank #26 of the most popular girls' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Nora was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Happy Birthday - 6,119 girls named Nora celebrate their second birthday this year

...because: In 2022, 6,119 girls were born and given the name Nora by their parents. That puts Nora at #28 on our list of most popular girls' names. It was much less popular in 2000 - only 540 parents chose this name for their newborn daughter and it ranked 475 on the popularity scale of all girls' names.

Nora -
at home in every state from California to New York

The name Nora may not be in the top rankings of the most popular girls’ names, but it is one of the few female given names, along with only 536 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Nora is apparently especially popular in Kentucky. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular women’s names here either, one in 638 women in Kentucky is called Nora. In total, that’s 4,195 women who feel addressed when the name Nora is shouted loudly across Kentucky and who ensure that their name makes it to #165 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names in this nice state. If you asked all women in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Nora as the answer a total of 148,530 times. This places Nora at #238 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular women’s names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living women across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Nora as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Nora has 4 letters 
and begins with an N

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter N is neither particularly common nor particularly rare as a first letter for girls' names: 4.1% of all common girls' names in the US begin with this letter. By the way, the most common first letters of girls' names are A and S, while X and U are the least common initials of girls' names.

With four letters, the name Nora is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Thus, it follows that with 4.1% of all girls' names starting with an N, this initial letter occurs about as often as all 26 letters on average. Nevertheless, there are girls' names with N that are quite common, the most common in the U.S. at present is Nancy.

Other names with 
N, o, r and a

If you take all the letters in the name Nora – N, o, r and a – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Noar or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Nora

If your name is Nora and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Nora

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Nora, you can simply say:

Nut

Orange

Rocket

Apple

This is how the name Nora is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Nora in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Nora

Nora

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Nora

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Nora is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

N
O
R
A

Have you ever waved the name Nora

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

N
O
R
A

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Nora sounds like this: