Nova
Nova is ranked 39th among girls in 2024 (5,044 births). Its best rank was 32nd, in 2021–2022.
- Rank in 2024
- #39down 4 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 5,0440.31% of girls
- Peak year
- 20225,920 births
- Best rank
- #32first in 2021
- Since 1885
- 54,140people given the name
The story in the numbers
51,063 girls have been named Nova in the United States since 1885, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2022, with 5,920 births — 0.36% of all girls recorded that year.
It has never been more used than now: its record year is 2022, within the last few years of data.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 2020, and the 2020s alone account for 52%. It has spent 66 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 8 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 3,077 boys have also been given it, 5.7% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Nova | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 52 | |
| 1890s | 187 | |
| 1900s | 279 | |
| 1910s | 629 | |
| 1920s | 891 | |
| 1930s | 657 | |
| 1940s | 369 | |
| 1950s | 283 | |
| 1960s | 402 | |
| 1970s | 589 | |
| 1980s | 360 | |
| 1990s | 289 | |
| 2000s | 1,219 | |
| 2010s | 18,049 | |
| 2020s | 26,808 |
In 2022, its biggest year
Nova was the 32nd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 2022 were Olivia, Emma, Charlotte, Amelia and Sophia. See all of 2022.
Names that rose and fell with Nova
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Everleepeak 2022
- Reignpeak 2021
- Freyapeak 2022
- Remipeak 2022
- Novaleighpeak 2022
- Elowenpeak 2024
- Lennonpeak 2022
- Ainhoapeak 2019
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.