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BabyNames
Girl name#2,013 of girl names

Nena

Pronounced N EY1 N AA1 (ARPABET)

  • 2 syllables
  • Peaked 1963
  • 145 years in use
  • 3 spellings
Compare

How popular is Nena?

Nena is a girls' name, and has been in the record since the data starts in 1880. It has been given to 5,374 children — the 2,013th most common girls' name on record.

It is still recorded, but barely: 178 births across the past decade, against a peak of 112 in a single year. That peak was in 1963.

Three other spellings are counted in that total — Neenah, Ninah and Nenah — because they are pronounced identically.

05010015020018901920195019802010
1963112

Spelling variants

These spellings sound identical to Nena and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

  • Neenah
  • Ninah
  • Nenah

Characteristics

  • Alliterative
  • 2 syllables
Phonetic detail
Pronunciations:
N EY1 N AA1 · N IY1 N AA1
Stress pattern:
11 · 11
Syllables:
2

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Names like Nena

Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.

Sibling names for Nena

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

Frequently asked questions

How popular is the name Nena?
Nena ranks 2,013th among girls' names in US records, with 5,374 births since 1880. Over the past decade it accounts for 178.
Is Nena a unisex name?
No. Nena is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Nena most popular?
1963, when 112 children were given the name. It has been in use for 145 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Nena spelled?
Neenah, Ninah, Nenah. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.