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BabyNames
Girl name#531 of girl names

Nova

Pronounced N OW1 V AH0 (ARPABET)

  • 2 syllables
  • Peaked 2022
  • 140 years in use
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How popular is Nova?

Nova is a girls' name, and first appears in 1885. It has been given to 54,147 children — the 531st most common girls' name on record.

It is climbing hard: more than ten times as many births in the past decade as in the one before it. Its best single year was 2022, when 5,920 children were given it.

02,5005,0007,50010,00018901920195019802010
2022Girls: 5,920Boys: 271

Characteristics

  • 2 syllables
Phonetic detail
Pronunciations:
N OW1 V AH0
Stress pattern:
10
Syllables:
2

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

Names like Nova

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

Sibling names for Nova

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

Frequently asked questions

How popular is the name Nova?
Nova ranks 531st among girls' names in US records, with 54,147 births since 1885. Over the past decade it accounts for 42,185.
Is Nova a unisex name?
No. Nova is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Nova most popular?
2022, when 5,920 children were given the name. It has been in use for 140 years and is still recorded as of 2024.